Tory Robert Jenrick left squirming in automotive crash interview on baby grooming gangs

Robert Jenrick was left squirming in a car-crash interview after admitting he’d never raised grooming gangs in the Commons before becoming “energised” about it this week.

The former Tory leadership candidate – now Kemi Badenoch’s shadow Justice Secretary – was skewered by the BBC’s Nick Robinson after his high profile intervention on the subject.

Mr Jenrick has been accused of potentially provoking racial hatred, over his calls for a limit on immigration from “alien cultures.”

Robert Jenrick has claimed Pakistani men are “over-represented in those who are involved in the grooming gangs”.

He told Times Radio: “What I have said is that millions of people have come into our country in recent times, but some of them are coming from countries and cultures that have backwards attitudes to women.

“And that’s backed up by the evidence that we have seen from the Jay Report and the testimonies of the victims.

“Pakistani men are over-represented in those who are involved in the grooming gangs, and the evidence we have seen is that some of those have specifically preyed upon white, working-class girls because they viewed them as worthless.

“We can’t dismiss that and I’m not going to sanitise or tip-toe around this issue.”

Professor Alexis Jay’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found a lack of data meant it was “impossible to know whether any particular ethnic group is over-represented as perpetrators of child sexual exploitation by networks”.

On the BBC’s Today Programme, he was challenged on his record by Mr Robinson, who said: “I’ve checked (Parliament record) Hansard today, and it’s not a perfect test. When you put in the name Robert Jenrick Grooming? No mention.

“Grooming gangs? No mention.

“Rotherham? No mention. Oldham? No mention. Rochdale? No mention. Child sexual abuse? No mention, Mr Jenrick. Child rape? No mention.

“You have not raised – or have you, please correct me if my search is wrong – the issue of child rape and child sexual abuse that you are so energised about. You have no evidence you raised it as a minister and you have no evidence that you’ve raise it in the House of Commons.”

“Nick,” Mr Jenrick replied. “I wrote about this last year and I was criticised by the media for doing so.”