KEMI BADENOCH was under pressure to sack Robert Jenrick after the shadow justice secretary made increasingly inflammatory remarks about the grooming gangs scandal.

The Liberal Democrats led calls for Jenrick’s departure after he claimed Britain was “importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess mediaeval attitudes towards women.” 

Deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Robert Jenrick’s attempt to exploit this appalling scandal for his own political gain is completely shameless. He didn’t lift a finger to help the victims when a minister, now he’s jumping on the bandwagon and acting like a pound shop Farage.

“Kemi Badenoch should sack him as shadow justice secretary and condemn his divisive comments.”

But the Tory leader was standing by her defeated rival, saying “the Conservative Party is under new leadership and that means confronting difficult truths.”

Leading left MP Diane Abbott was also critical of Mr Jenrick, but claimed that the government was not helping defuse the situation either.

She wrote on Labour List:  “Sadly, the new Labour government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer is offering little or nothing to counter the anti-migrant drift in worldwide public discussion.

“It has never been more important that British political leadership makes the case for immigration policy based on fairness and the facts rather than fear and scapegoating.”

MPs are likely to reject Tory demands that a national inquiry be held into the grooming gangs, although Nigel Farage has threatened to establish an unofficial one. The head of the previous inquiry, Alexis Jay, has said a new probe would only delay implementation of her recommendations.