Sir Keir Starmer has faced Kemi Badenoch at the first PMQs of 2025, which came against the backdrop of a debate about an inquiry into child grooming gangs – largely driven by Elon Musk.
Wednesday 8 January 2025 16:13, UK
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Former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson said he has “very serious concerns” about the changes to schooling included in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Sir Gavin said it would diminish the best schools and “stamp out brilliance”.
He welcomed the areas focusing on children’s wellbeing, but said those seeking to bring academies more in line with schools run by local authorities “raise very serious concerns”.
‘Dragging the excellent down’
“As was said by the government, the current discrepancy between maintained schools and academies leaves potential for inconsistencies in education standards, opportunities, and outcomes for pupils from different types of schools,” he said.
But rather than “making sure excellence within our schooling system is actually driven forward, it seems to be about dragging the excellent down”.
The MP for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge later said: “There’s a sense that what we want to do is have a homogenous schools system where brilliance, and excellence and freedom for teachers and for schools to deliver the very best for their pupils is stamped out.”
By Tomos Evans, Wales reporter
Members of the Senedd could be about to get a pay rise under plans out for consultation.
The Remuneration Board has recommended the 3% cap on members’ pay in 2025/26 be removed, and instead have it linked to the average pay increases of 6% in Wales.
The cap was introduced in March 2021 during the “exceptional circumstances” of the COVID pandemic, and its removal would bring the Senedd in line with salaries for members of the UK’s other legislatures.
The salary for members of the Welsh parliament with no additional responsibilities would increase to £76,380.
Elections on the horizon
The independent board which consults on members’ salaries is currently seeking views from the public until 19 February, and any change to the salaries would come into effect from April this year.
Dr Elizabeth Haywood, chair of the remuneration board, said the review focused on ensuring members were “remunerated fairly and provided with sufficient resources to support them in their duties”.
The proposals come ahead of next year’s Senedd elections, which will see 96 members elected to the chamber in Cardiff Bay for the first time.
Currently, there are 60 members of the parliament, but government plans to increase the Senedd’s membership were approved by more than two thirds of members last May.
Former education secretary Damian Hinds has said the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will make it “as if Tony Blair had never been prime minister”.
Not only does the proposed legislation represent the “final demise” of controversial reforms introduced by Michael Gove, the Tory MP said, but also reverses the famous “education, education, education” message of the former Labour leader.
Teachers’ futures at risk, say Tories
He added: “Children eligible for free school meals, 50% more likely now to go to university than they were in 2010, why has that happened?
“One word – teachers. It is teachers who have made that happen.”
His intervention in the Commons comes amid Tory warnings that the bill risks thousands of teachers leaving the profession.
That’s because it will extend the national pay scales for schools run by local authorities to academies too, which the Conservatives say could put those teachers’ benefits at risk.
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, has condemned the abuse directed at safeguarding minister Jess Phillips after Elon Musk’s attacks on her.
He had accused the minister of being a “rape genocide apologist” and a “witch”, claims Ms Phillips told Sky News were “ridiculous”.
Ms Badenoch said “any abuse directed towards MPs is obviously disgraceful and should not happen”.
Despite this, the Tory leader remains a fan of the billionaire’s work.
Asked about the abuse faced by Ms Phillips, a spokesman for the leader of the opposition said: “Any abuse directed towards MPs is obviously disgraceful and should not happen, and as a black, Conservative woman, Kemi gets more than her fair share.”
Pressed on whether she remained a fan of Mr Musk, the spokesman said: “She is a fan of what he has done with his companies.”
Kemi Badenoch used all of her questions at PMQs to question the prime minister about why he is not ordering a new national inquiry into the grooming scandal, having spent days calling for one.
After the parliamentary punch-up, the Tory leader’s spokesman took questions from journalists, and was asked if she had met with victims of grooming and survivors of child sexual exploitation.
He replied that she has not yet met with any victims, but she will “meet them if they want to meet with her”.
The spokesman also said she did not call for a national inquiry previously because she served in governments led by other prime ministers, when she was bound by “collective responsibility”.
In the House of Commons, shadow education secretary Laura Trott has addressed MPs on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
She said the Conservative Party was introducing an amendment to the bill for a national inquiry into grooming gangs as the full extent of the scandal is unknown.
Ms Trott said the debate had moved too far away from the victims of child sexual exploitation gangs.
She said: “There are legitimate arguments to be had in this area. But the one I will not accept is to call for this is to be far right.
“The Labour government have to understand that they must explain their actions, not just call the opposition names.”
Inquiry would ‘tell the truth’
Ms Trott added: “This is an enormous scandal, and yet we do not know fully the number of victims, the number of perpetrators and where this has taken place.
“The previous Conservative government set up the grooming gang taskforce which made over 500 arrests in the first year, there were over 1,400 victims in Rotherham alone.
“This will potentially encompass tens of thousands of children and that’s why we think we need a comprehensive national inquiry into grooming gangs to tell the truth.”
The government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill includes measures to keep youngsters safe if they’re being homeschooled, and unifying the pay conditions for council-run school and academy teachers.
But it’s been somewhat hijacked today by a Tory amendment trying to force the government to hold a public inquiry into grooming gangs.
You can watch MPs debate the bill and amendment below:
Let’s have a quick catch-up on the main things you need to know on a busy day in the House of Commons.
We’ll bring you any noteworthy details from the debate on the government’s schools bill through the afternoon, and the result of the vote later this evening.
Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live from 7pm.
Stay with us for more updates and analysis until then.
The PM will meet French president Emmanuel Macron tomorrow, Downing Street has announced.
But Sir Keir Starmer is doing something unusual – he is hosting Mr Macron in the UK, rather than jetting off to see him.
The pair will meet at Chequers – the prime minister’s grace-and-favour country home in Buckinghamshire.
The PM’s spokesperson said the two leaders will discuss “areas of cooperation and shared global challenges including support for Ukraine, tech and AI, growth and tackling illegal migration”.
No doubt Donald Trump and Elon Musk will come up at some point as well…
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson has been taking questions from journalists following PMQs, and they were asked about Jess Phillips’s comments to Sky News about a national inquiry into the grooming scandal.
In case you missed it – Ms Phillips told our political editor Beth Rigby on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast that “nothing is off the table” when dealing with the grooming gangs scandal – including a new national inquiry if victims want one.
‘We will always listen to victims’
The comments appeared to contradict what the PM had previously said, but his spokesperson told journalists that Downing Street’s position is exactly the same.
“We will always listen to what victims want,” they said, adding that is why they are implementing all the 20 recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) that reported in 2022.
They added that Sir Keir would meet with “all victims”, while “the Tories are calling for things they sat on for eight years while the leader of the opposition [Kemi Badenoch] was an MP”.
Meanwhile, they said, Sir Keir was “responsible for prosecution of one of the first gangs in Rochdale”.
‘Victims want action’
Asked if this is a U-turn from the PM’s previously express position, his spokesperson rejected that out of hand, saying that they’ll “remain open”, but “victims groups don’t want to see more inquiries”.
They added that an inquiry could take place “if victims in future come to us requesting one”.
“But as of now, they have told us they want action, not instigating a new inquiry.”
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