Findlay would ‘think twice’ about using Badenoch’s language on grooming gangs

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has distanced himself from Kemi Badenoch’s comments calling grooming gang abusers “peasants” from “sub-communities” in foreign countries, saying he would have “thought twice” about using such language.

Russell Findlay said he “didn’t want to demonise particular groups of people” but added that he “won’t shy away from demonising those who have inflicted such horrific abuse on children”.

Between 1997 and 2013, gangs of men in England of mainly Pakistani descent raped and trafficked children as young as 11.

Ms Badenoch, the leader of the UK Tory party, has continued to call for a national inquiry into the scandal.

Speaking to GB News about the issue, Ms Badenoch said: “On the perpetrators’ side, where do these abusers come from? There’s a lot of misinformation, there’s a lot of generalisation and many innocent people will end up being grouped in with them.

“But there is a systematic pattern of behaviour, not even just from one country, but from sub-communities within those countries.

“People with a particular background, work background. People with a very poor background, a sort of peasant background, very, very rural, almost cut off from even the home origin countries that they might have been in.”

Speaking to the PA news agency, the leader of the Scottish Tories was asked whether he thought that language was acceptable.

He said: “Well, I don’t want to demonise particular groups of people in society but I absolutely won’t shy away from demonising those who have inflicted such horrific abuse on children in towns and cities across our country.

“I think it’s entirely right that we should be angry about that.

“Reading some of the accounts of what these children were put through, as devastating as that was, only to be compounded by authorities who are there to protect them, telling them to keep quiet, in some cases, going after them as the victims.”

Speaking about Ms Badenoch’s remarks, he added: “I’d have to hear the full context but it’s perhaps language I would have thought twice about using.

“But I think it’s important that we look at what happened to these girls. And it’s primarily girls, and we ensure that it never happens again.”

Mr Findlay’s comments follow his New Year’s speech in Edinburgh in which he pitched his party as the only one in Holyrood offering Scots “change”.

The Scottish Tory leader echoed previous comments attacking Holyrood’s “left-wing consensus”, which he wants to break.

Asked during a Q&A after his speech about how he would battle the threat of Reform UK, he said: “One thing I think we all see is that this party you speak about plays by different rules and has different standards applied to it.

“We don’t know what they represent. Specifically in Scotland, we don’t know any people, the ones we have seen, some of them believe in breaking up the United Kingdom, which is at odds with our supporters’ position.

“So it’ll be curious to see how they evolve but all we can do in the meantime is show people across Scotland that we’re credible, that we understand business, we understand fairness, we want to lower taxes, we want to improve education, and after 25 years of failed left-wing socialist devolution there is another way.”

He described Reform UK as a “protest vote” and added that “any vote for any other party can only help the SNP”.

Reform UK has been approached for comment.