Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has blamed high levels of immigration for the grooming gangs crisis.

The Tory leader said the grooming gang scandal was an “extreme example” of what could happen when high levels of immigration prevent people from integrating into UK society.

Ms Badenoch said: “The numbers that we have seen over the last few decades mean that we are getting people having separate and insular communities.

“The most extreme example of this is what we saw with the rape gangs, where people who’ve been coming to this country from the 60s, from a particular region and sub community in Pakistan, get here, stay insular, not interested in integration.

“And then you start seeing very, very toxic, I would say evil, habits propagating and no one doing anything about it because they’re separate.

“We have to make sure that we have a dominant culture in our country. And the people who move here want to help make the UK a better place. Our country is not a hotel. It’s not a dormitory. This is our home.”

She also defended her claim that “peasants” from “sub-communities” in foreign countries had caused the grooming gangs crisis.

An independent report published by Professor Alexis Jay in 2014 estimated 1,400 girls had been abused in Rotherham, mainly by men of Pakistani descent.

Ms Badenoch told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “The point I was making there was about a specific report on that community of people who are predominant in the rape gangs.

“They did come from a particular place where they were mostly peasant farmers, they were insular, even from the rest of Pakistan, they’re not like the people in Lahore.

“I hear a lot of people talk about Asian grooming gangs, about Pakistani grooming gangs, a lot of people are being blamed, a lot of innocent people who happen to share characteristics are being blamed, so let’s be specific.”

Ms Badenoch has previously been accused of “Islamophobia” for the claim, with Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer calling the comment “shockingly offensive and irresponsible”.

At least 1,400 girls were estimated to have been abused by grooming gangs in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013; in Telford, it is estimated that over 1,000 children were abused over three decades. In Rochdale, an inquiry identified 74 probable victims and evidence of a much wider problem.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced that survivors and victims of sexual abuse will be able to ask for their closed cases to be reviewed by an independent criminal justice review panel where their previous investigations were not taken forward to prosecution by the police or Crown Prosecution Service.

The Home Secretary wrote to the National Police Chiefs’ Council requesting officers look again at these unsolved and closed grooming gangs cases, backed by £2.5m in funding for stronger investigations.

She also commissioned a “national audit” to uncover the scale of group-based offending in the UK.

Baroness Louise Casey will lead an inquiry to draw a comprehensive picture of the nature, scale and profile of group-based child sexual abuse offending, including looking at the ethnicity of offenders.