Sir Keir Starmer faced Kemi Badenoch at the first PMQs of 2025, against the increasingly incendiary backdrop of a row about grooming gangs largely driven by Elon Musk. The Tories have attempted to force a new inquiry via an amendment to the government’s education bill.
Wednesday 8 January 2025 19:00, UK
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Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live.
Joining us tonight is education minister Stephen Morgan.
On the panel are former Tory minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Jeremy Corbyn’s ex-policy chief Andrew Fisher.
You can watch in the stream below or at the top of this page, and we’ll bring you rolling updates from the programme too.
By Jenness Mitchell, Scotland reporter
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie is set to undergo a planned medical procedure that will take him away from Holyrood for a number of weeks.
The MSP for Glasgow is planning to take time off from Monday 13 January, with his recovery expected to take at least six weeks.
The Scottish Greens said Mr Harvie may also work remotely for a period before returning to parliament.
A spokesperson for the party wished him a “fast and full recovery”.
Mr Harvie, along with party co-leader Lorna Slater, served as a Scottish government minister between August 2021 and April 2024.
The politician’s stint as minister for zero carbon buildings, active travel and tenants’ rights came to an abrupt end last April when then SNP first minister Humza Yousaf ended the power-sharing Bute House Agreement.
The surprise move eventually led to Mr Yousaf resigning as first minister and SNP leader, a little over a year after he replaced Nicola Sturgeon.
A torrent of posts from X owner Elon Musk has thrown an unexpected spotlight on the issue of historical grooming gangs in the last week.
In the early 2010s, dozens of men, the majority of British Pakistani origin, were convicted of crimes including rape, sex trafficking, and child sexual exploitation that had gone undetected for years.
On today’s Daily, Niall Paterson is joined by our home editor Jason Farrell and Lucy Duckworth, from The Survivors Trust, herself a survivor of child abuse, to explain why the recommendations of numerous inquiries have still not been implemented.
The Survivors Trust runs a free, confidential national helpline 7 days a week for survivors of rape or sexual abuse and violence aged 16+.
You can call 0808 801 0818 or text 07860 022 956 for support.
The Tories’ attempts to amend the government’s schools bill with a requirement for an inquiry into grooming gangs does rather risk overshadowing what’s actually in the proposed legislation.
The focus – as its full name (Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill) suggests – is on keeping youngsters safe.
One of the main measures is parents losing the automatic right to homeschool their children if they are considered vulnerable.
It comes after the parents of Sara Sharif were jailed for her murder just before the Christmas break, having subjected her to shocking abuse.
Other measures include:
We’ve had the first PMQs of 2025 today, and the Commons has also been packed for debate over the government’s flagship education bill.
Here are the main things you need to know:
Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live from 7pm.
Joining us tonight is education minister Stephen Morgan.
On the panel are former Tory minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Jeremy Corbyn’s ex-policy chief Andrew Fisher.
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”.
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