Kemi Badenoch has blamed “peasants” from “sub-communities” within foreign countries for the grooming gangs crisis.
The Conservative also told GB News hearing victims’ accounts were “quite shocking” as she reaffirmed calls for a national inquiry into the scandal.
Mrs Badenoch said cultural issues surrounding the problem also needed to be examined.
“One is 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,” she said.
Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons.
“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.
The Tory leader has repeatedly clashed with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over calls for a national inquiry.
The Government has previously knocked back calls for a national review in favour of locally-led inquiries, saying it is focused on delivering recommendations to Professor Alexis Jay’s 2022 report on the issue.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.
The issue gained international attention after tech billionaire Elon Musk posted a slew of attacks aimed at the Prime Minister over the issue at the start of the year.
Mrs Badenoch said a national inquiry would shine a light on the truth and hold people to account.
“This is about those victims who deserve justice,” she said.
“The survivors who deserve justice by making sure that every single perpetrator we can find is caught and brought to justice, and those who failed in their duty to protect their children are held to account and exposed.”
Mrs Badenoch’s comments came amid calls from Labour MP for Rotherham calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
Sarah Champion called for a nationwide inquiry that would be led locally and probe the failings of authorities over grooming gangs.
She proposed a national “Telford-style” inquiry rolled out by the Home Office to areas that trigger the threshold for greater scrutiny.
The findings would then be fed back to the Home Office for a national response.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.
“Child sexual abuse is endemic in the UK and needs to be recognised as a national priority,” she said.
“It is clear that the public distrusts governments and authorities when it comes to preventing and prosecuting child abuse, especially child sexual exploitation.”
She set out a five-point plan of recommendations including a national inquiry and a “national audit” to see if grooming gangs are still operating or cases have been missed.
Local inquiries lack the power to compel witnesses and would fail to satisfy the public’s concern about cover-ups, she said.
The Prime Minister is coming under increasing pressure to launch an inquiry (Henry Nicholls/PA)
Triggers for such inquiries in local areas could be local councils or police referring themselves or an independent panel raising concerns.
Victim or survivor reports could also trigger an inquiry under the model, Ms Champion said.
Pressure has mounted on the Prime Minister to launch an inquiry specifically into grooming gangs since billionaire Elon Musk posted a slew of attacks on him over the issue at the start of the year.
Dan Carden, who represents Liverpool Walton, became the first Labour MP to back calls for a national inquiry at the weekend.