Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has been confronted by GB News reporter Charlie Peters on Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel's position on the Tory front bench, following Baroness Casey's review on grooming gangs.In 2020 when Patel was Home Secretary, the Home office published a report which claimed "there was not a disproportionate overrepresentation of British Pakistanis".Charlie Peters pressed Badenoch on whether the Conservatives and Patel are to blame for the "racial myth" surrounding grooming gangs.Charlie asked: "You've got someone on your front bench who put out a report saying that actually, Pakistanis weren't overrepresented. Do you think Priti Patel should clarify why she let that report come out?"Badenoch responded: "I don't know about the report that was put out by Priti Patel. I do know about the work that was done by Sajid Javid, by Suella Braverman, by Theresa May, all Home Secretaries who were Conservative. "But I'm the person leading my party now and it's either we spend time trying to prosecute reports that have gone on in the past, or actually look at the people who actually covered things up. That's really where the scandal is. That's what the survivors are talking about."WATCH ABOVE.
00:00Baroness Casey's audit is painful reading, almost 200 pages of appalling reports, much of it already in the public domain.
00:10But there was one new piece of analysis amongst that, which was looking back at the 2020 Home Office report.
00:16When Priti Patel was Home Secretary, she released a report which found that there was not a disproportionate over-representation of British Pakistanis.
00:25Casey said that that claim is not evidenced in research or data.
00:31Priti Patel and the Conservatives to blame them for advancing this myth, this racial myth, about the grooming gang scandal.
00:39I disagree. This was something that we raised before and after that.
00:43I don't know where the data for that report, what it was based on.
00:47There was a lack of data, that was a problem.
00:49There was only 30% gathered, but the Conservatives' Home Office still said there was no representation.
00:54I did a report after that as Minister for Equalities where I referenced this and talked about loads of integration issues, including the grooming gang one, and talked about ethnicity as well.
01:05So lots of different people were doing different bits of work, but the cumulative evidence that we have from the work that we did in government is that ethnicity was an issue.
01:16That's why Sajid Javid asked for ethnicity to be collected.
01:18He was called far-right and racist.
01:22That was before Priti Patel's report came out in 2020.
01:25How are survivors going to trust your leadership of the Conservative Party?
01:29You've got someone on your front bench who put out a report saying that actually Pakistanis weren't over-represented,
01:35that most CSC being conducted by groups was white men, when that information just wasn't there.
01:40Do you think Priti Patel should clarify why should that report come out?
01:43They can trust me because they have seen me speak not just on this issue, but on many other issues.
01:49What I have repeatedly said, and I put out my own report, that's a report on race and ethnic disparities, that we need to actually call things as they are,
01:58and not succumb to this fear of this political correctness that means that you can't call, you can't speak the truth.
02:05That's why people can trust me.
02:07I don't know about the report that was put out by Priti Patel.
02:10I do know about the work that was done by Sajid Javid, by Suella Braverman, by Theresa May, all Home Secretaries who are Conservative.
02:18I know about the gang's task force.
02:19And your Home Secretaries aren't in your front bench.
02:21That's fine, but I'm the person leading my party now.
02:24And it's either we spend time trying to prosecute reports that have gone on in the past,
02:28or actually look at the people who actually covered things up.
02:32That's really where the scandal is.
02:34That's what the survivors are talking about.
02:36I don't think many people even saw this particular report.
02:39I can look into it.
02:40But right now, I am saying on my own record that this is an issue I've always cared about.
02:44I made it a flagship of my leadership bid last year, and I have not let it go since January,
02:50even when a lot of people were saying, why do you keep talking about this?
