Kemi Badenoch has urged the national inquiry into the grooming gangs to examine whether cousin marriage has contributed to the scandal.

The Tory leader told GB News the “insidious” practice of first-cousin marriage undermined integration and promoted group loyalties over “loyalty to society.”

Badenoch told the People's Channel the national inquiry, announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer last weekend, should examine whether cousin marriage “contributed to the conditions that enabled the grooming, abuse and trafficking of vulnerable children”.

Her intervention comes amid growing concern about the practice of cousin marriage and its impact on community cohesion.

Baroness Casey’s grooming gangs report last week found “two-thirds of suspects offended within groups” that were “based on pre-existing relationships — mainly brothers and cousins”.

Academic Dr Patrick Nash told the Sunday Times this weekend that “Cousin marriage sustains close-kin networks which incentivise clan members both to dehumanise out-group victims and to suppress knowledge of criminal activity to preserve family honour”.

Dr Nash’s research has been central to Tory efforts to ban the practice, first proposed in a private member’s bill.

YouGov polling last month found that 77 per cent of Brits are in favour of banning cousin marriage, with just 9 per cent opposing a ban.

Kemi Badenoch has called for the grooming gangs inquiry to probe ‘insidious’ cousin marriage links

Badenoch said: “We must confront insidious practices like first cousin marriage, which undermine integration, isolate communities, and can foster environments where submission to one group overrides the law and loyalty to society. That is when horrific crimes – like the grooming gangs – take root.

“The national inquiry must leave no stone unturned, including the role of ethnicity.

“It should also examine whether cousin marriage contributed to the conditions that enabled the grooming, abuse and trafficking of vulnerable children.”