Sir Keir Starmer is facing Kemi Badenoch at the first PMQs of the year, which comes against the backdrop of an increasingly unsavoury debate about whether there should be another inquiry into child grooming gangs.
Wednesday 8 January 2025 13:04, UK
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The second reading of the government’s flagship Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is under way in the Commons.
But the Tories have tabled a reasoned amendment that both expresses opposition to many of the measures in the bill, and also calls on the government to order a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal.
The Speaker has announced that the amendment has been selected for debate.
Without getting too much into the weeds of parliamentary procedure – at this stage of a bill’s passage, if the reasoned amendment passes, it would kill the whole legislation, which has infuriated the government (read more detail on the Commons procedure here).
That means that Labour MPs will vote against the amendment, and the Tories will then say Labour voted against a new inquiry.
Read the full details of the Tory amendment here.
Some strong points from both government and opposition for and against a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
What stood out from PMQs today is Keir Starmer daring Kemi Badenoch to correct him when he said she had never raised the issue of grooming gangs in parliament since becoming an MP.
She did not correct him, saying she had raised it in “speeches”, but gave new reasons to hold one – including that not doing so could increase Islamophobia.
Starmer reined in his language from earlier in the week, not referring to those who wanted an inquiry as jumping on a “far right” bandwagon, although still insists they are late to the issue.
He also said victims were split on the issue, and it was a “reasonable” argument.
This is an issue put at the top of the agenda by Elon Musk, but both party leaders adopted a moderate tone for this hugely important issue, and largely left him out of it.
The first session of Prime Minister’s Questions of the year has now concluded.
Sir Keir Starmer was questioned on a range of topics, and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch focused on calls for a new national inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
Scroll down for full coverage and analysis of this week’s session.
Next to ask a question of the prime minister is Tory MP Gregory Stafford about the anti-corruption minister, Tulip Siddiq.
The minister has referred herself to the prime minister’s ethics watchdog over alleged links to a Russian deal with her aunt, the former Bangladesh prime minister, and properties linked to her political party (more here).
Starmer refuses to give ‘running commentary’
Mr Stafford tells the House: “First of all we had a chancellor who embellished her CV, then we had a transport secretary with a fraud conviction, and now we’ve got an anti-corruption minister who is being investigated for corruption.
“Now I know the prime minister likes living in free accommodation, but does he really think it’s appropriate that his minister is being given free housing by the political allies of some very dubious foreign regimes?”
Sir Keir Starmer replies that Ms Siddiq has “acted appropriately by referring herself to the independent advisor”.
The new ministerial code brought in by his government allows ministers to ask the independent advisor to establish the facts, and he won’t “give a running commentary on that important exercise”.
The PM is asked about calls for the England cricket team to boycott next month’s Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan.
MPs including Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn have joined calls for England to refuse to play the 50-over match in a stand against the Taliban regime’s assault on women’s rights.
Sir Keir Starmer is asked whether he would agree to meet his counterparts in South Africa and Australia to ask if they would also consider boycotting their matches against Afghanistan.
The PM says there’s been an “appalling erosion” of the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan and says that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are in touch with the relevant international counterparts on the issue.
“I welcome the England and Wales Cricket Board making strong representations to the International Cricket Council on Afghanistan women’s cricket team,” he adds.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks why the PM has commissioned a social care review which will take three years – an issue the Lib Dems are likely to continue banging the drum for.
Starmer adopts a consensual tone, saying he hopes the Lib Dems will take part in the commission, but Davey says he hopes the government will look again at the timetable.
Critics say the PM has no need for cross-party consensus as he has a massive majority and is kicking social care into the long grass despite it being crucial, NHS voices say, to his plans to cut waiting lists.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey asks the PM about money in politics.
He tells the House: “While the honourable member for Clacton [Nigel Farage] may miss out from his big allowance from Elon Musk, the spectre of the richest man in the world trying to buy a British political party should give us all pause for thought.”
It comes after Elon Musk suddenly proclaimed Mr Farage should be removed as Reform leader, following weeks of reports he was about to make a large donation to the party.
‘We all had a smile,’ says PM
He also says the Tories have taken “millions of pounds of Russian money” over a number of years, and asks Sir Keir if he will work with the Lib Dems “to bring in long overdue reforms of party funding so that power in this country lies with the voters, and not wealthy overseas oligarchs”.
Sir Keir Starmer replies: “I think we all had a smile on Sunday when [Mr Farage] said how cool it was to have the support of Musk, only for Musk to say he should be removed just a few hours later.”
He adds that the government is “looking at the question” of money in politics more broadly.
The grooming gangs scandal is dominating PMQs.
Kemi Badenoch sets out her party’s case for a national inquiry in detail, saying local inquiries don’t have the same powers to call witnesses.
She also tries to recover the Conservatives’ record on this issue, saying the fact the last government’s grooming taskforce led to 550 arrests shows there is a wider scale that needs to be investigated.
She also says it could be a far shorter inquiry than the last one, which took seven years in total.
But probably the most damaging line of attack for Labour is the implication – denied by Keir Starmer – that the idea is being resisted because of fears of being branded racist.
Starmer insists he “put Asian men in the dock” for these crimes as director of public prosecutions.
A spirited exchange from both, and Starmer’s frustration is clear.
In response to Sir Keir Starmer mentioning his work as chief prosecutor, Kemi Badenoch says focus should be on the victims of the grooming scandal and not the PM.
“This is not about the prime minister’s work in the CPS,” she says.
“I would say very respectfully to the prime minister. It’s not about you. It is about the victims. Be a leader, not a lawyer.”
She criticises the Labour Party’s definition of Islamophobia, which she says lacks clarity and means “innocent British Muslims” are smeared by association with the grooming scandal.
“That is not fair, and only a national inquiry can solve this,” she adds, calling this “one of the worst scandals in recent British history”.
In response, Keir Starmer once again says Ms Badenoch never raised this issue during eight years as an MP before.
He says she “spent a lot of time on social media over Christmas”.
As Tory leader Kemi Badenoch pushes the PM for a new national inquiry into the grooming scandal, Sir Keir Starmer replies that “we have to focus on the victims and survivors”.
“This sort of lies and misinformation and slinging of mud doesn’t help them one bit,” Sir Keir says, to outrage from the opposition benches.
He accepts that victims and survivors “are in different places on this”, but adds that those he has spoken to “are worried about the delay of a further inquiry”.
He repeats that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that reported in 2022 took seven years, which would mean a new inquiry would take until 2031 to report.
“It is not sensible to suggest that this can be done in a hurry, on the cheap, un-comprehensively.”
PM defends his own record
Ms Badenoch argues that it is “very possible to have shorter inquiries”, and that work that has already been done does not need to be repeated.
A new inquiry, she says, would examine “if there was a racial or cultural motivation to some of these crimes”.
Sir Keir says he will happily “call out anybody who hasn’t acted properly in these cases”, regardless of political party, and says he took measures to tackle grooming gangs when he led the Crown Prosecution Service, launching a defence of his record.
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