Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick has called for full life sentences for grooming gang perpetrators and immediate deportation of foreign offenders after they complete their prison terms.

Speaking during a live GB News audience grilling, Jenrick said: "I want to get those despicable people out of our country as quickly as possible."

He criticised what he described as "pathetically low sentences" currently being handed down to offenders.

"If they are foreigners, then as soon as they finish their sentences they should be out of this country. I don't want to ever see them walking the streets of this country," Jenrick told the audience.

Robert Jenrick wants to see foreign grooming gang members deported

His comments come as seven men were convicted yesterday for sexually exploiting two vulnerable girls in Manchester.

Jenrick highlighted a specific case where he had referred a group to the Attorney General for consideration of unduly lenient sentences.

"There was a group I referred to the Attorney General for his consideration for unduly lenient sentences because they were getting six-and-a-half years for drugging young girls and then raping them time and again," he said.

The Shadow Justice Secretary noted that such cases were taking decades to resolve.

"Those cases are taking 25 years and three court cases for them to finally get justice," Jenrick stated.

He explained that the Attorney General and courts had intervened to increase the sentences to 11 years.

"I think these people should get full life sentences," Jenrick added, emphasising his belief that current punishments were insufficient.

The seven men convicted yesterday at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court were found guilty of 50 offences including rape and indecency with a child.

The offences occurred between 2001 and 2006 against two 13-year-old girls who had "deeply troubled home lives", the court heard.

Robert Jenrick faced questions from a live GB News audience

Prosecutor Rossano Scamardella told jurors the victims were "passed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded".

One victim believes she may have been abused by more than 200 men during years of exploitation.

The defendants, including three market stall holders, initially provided the girls with drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and places to stay.

However, this apparent kindness soon turned sinister, with the girls expected to have sex "whenever and wherever" the defendants and other men demanded.

Grooming gang activity in Britain is still extensiveGB News

The men had denied all charges but were unanimously convicted after three weeks of jury deliberations.

The grooming gangs scandal has remained a prominent issue in British politics, with a 2014 inquiry revealing that at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

The inquiry found that the majority of known perpetrators were of Pakistani heritage and that local officials had sometimes been reluctant to identify ethnic origins for fear of being perceived as racist or disrupting community cohesion.

The scandal returned to political prominence earlier this year when Elon Musk criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer on social media platform X.

Musk accused Starmer of failing to address the scandal during his tenure as Britain's chief prosecutor, allegations which Starmer strongly rejected.

Similar grooming gang cases in other towns and cities across England have led to numerous criminal prosecutions and local inquiries.