By Martin Beckford, Policy Editor Published: 17:00 EDT, 20 October 2024 | Updated: 17:55 EDT, 20 October 2024
Robert Jenrick has demanded whole life sentences for grooming gang leaders.The Tory leadership contender said ‘disgusting predators’ found guilty of sexually exploiting and raping children should never be released from prison.He announced several tough policies last night aimed at bolstering his support from the Right of the Conservative Party as he fights Kemi Badenoch to the leadership.Mr Jenrick also wants permanent tagging of those who are eventually released from prison over grooming offences and for non-British citizens convicted of taking part to be automatically deported.And he is demanding the introduction of criminal penalties for police officers and social workers who fail to report group child sexual exploitation, as well as a possible monument to victims in Rotherham. The Tory leadership contender said ‘disgusting predators’ found guilty of sexually exploiting and raping children should never be released from prison Pictured, seven men who were found guilty of grooming and abusing young girls in Rotherham: Clockwise from top left: Iqlak Yousaf, Nabeel Kurshid, Mohammed Imran Ali Akhtar, Tanweer Ali, Asif Ali and Salah Ahmed El-HakamHis comments come a decade after the landmark Jay report into grooming in the South Yorkshire town revealed that at least 1,400 underage girls had been raped and trafficked, mainly by Pakistani men.But despite the many convictions since then, a 2022 report into gangs that abused more than 1,000 children in Telford warned that grooming ‘still exists today’ and is ‘prevalent across the country’.Former Home Office minister Mr Jenrick said last night: ‘Anyone who thinks these crimes are no longer happening is delusional.’That view, sadly widespread across the most powerful people in Britain, is condemning more working class girls to these savage and life-ruining crimes.’Every second this atrocity continues is a stain on our nation’s moral conscience. That is why I am calling for mandatory whole life sentences for any grooming gang member. Former Home Office minister Mr Jenrick said last night: ‘Anyone who thinks these crimes are no longer happening is delusional’ (Sheffield Crown Court) It comes after Mr Jenrick vowed to scrap a series of major Labour laws if he becomes Tory leader and eventually Prime Minister’Anyone who has read the Jay report would support locking up these disgusting predators for life. Any non-Brit who has committed one of these crimes should be immediately deported and banned from ever returning here.’He added that some of the reforms introduced by his former boss in the Home Office, Suella Braverman, have ‘worked well’.’The dedicated Grooming Gangs taskforce led to the arrest of over 550 suspects in a single year. This is a good start but the truth is that we need to go much further again.’It comes after Mr Jenrick vowed to scrap a series of major Labour laws if he becomes Tory leader and eventually Prime Minister.He said he would tear up the Climate Change Act, Equality Act and Human Rights Act to make Britain a ‘genuinely conservative country’.
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Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick demands whole life sentences for grooming gang leaders