Prime Minister Keir Starmer has accused Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch of 'bandwagon jumping' in her call for a new inquiry into sexual abuse gangs. During Prime Minister's Questions, Starmer condemned Badenoch for planning to vote down a children's wellbeing bill, arguing that her interest in the issue only emerged after Elon Musk repeatedly tweeted about it.
Starmer noted that Badenoch, who served as children's minister in the previous government, had never raised the issue of grooming gangs in the Commons. 'She met her recently acquired view that it's a scandal, having spent a lot of time on social media over Christmas,' he said. Badenoch countered that she had raised it in speeches and that, as she was not a Home Office minister, she would not have addressed it in the Commons.
The Conservatives plan to use an amendment to the children's wellbeing and schools bill to force a new national inquiry. Badenoch rejected Starmer's argument that another inquiry would delay implementation of the 2022 Jay report's recommendations, insisting that 'it is very possible to have actions, take on more, and still have a national inquiry.'
Starmer replied that survivors of grooming gangs he met on Wednesday told him they preferred swift action over another inquiry. He angrily condemned the planned amendment, which would block the entire bill, including provisions to tighten child welfare, such as preventing automatic home-schooling for children under protection plans. He cited the case of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, who was taken out of formal schooling before being murdered by her father and stepmother.
Badenoch hit back, accusing Starmer of ordering Labour MPs to vote against an inquiry into 'one of the worst scandals in British history' and questioning how they would explain to constituents that 'obeying his whip is more important than doing the right thing.'
