Kemi Badenoch speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions (Image: PA)
Nigel Farage continued his war of words with Kemi Badenoch as he slammed the Tory leader for failing to call for a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal whilst the were in power.The Reform UK chief said Mrs Badenoch was Women and Equalities Minister between 2022 and 2024.
The intervention came just minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions, where the Conservative leader ramped up pressure on Prime Minister Sir to commit to a public probe into the rape and abuse of thousands of young girls in towns across towns and cities in the UK.
Mr Farage said before a fiery Prime Minister’s Questions: “Kemi Badenoch was Minister for Women and Equalities from 2022 to 2024. Why did she not demand a full inquiry then?”
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Nigel Farage has slammed Kemi Badenoch’s record on grooming gangs (Image: Getty)
Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch defended her party’s record in office, telling MPs: “I’ve raised it in speeches, I’ve raised it publicly. He knows that as a minister, I would not have been speaking on this specific issue – I was not a Home Office minister but I will remind him about other victims who came to me who I did help – the victims of the Tavistock scandal came to me as a minister.
“I didn’t send them away like his safeguarding minister (Jess Phillips). I made sure, as his Labour Party was calling me transphobic, that we launched the Cass Review that even his health secretary has accepted, so we do right by victims.”
Ms Phillips appeared to say “I didn’t send them away” from the front bench, before Ms Badenoch said past inquiries “couldn’t get evidence, they couldn’t summon witnesses and not a single person in a position of authority has been held to account”.
The Leader of the Opposition warned that “by resisting this (inquiry), people will start to worry about a cover up”.
Sir Keir said in his reply: “This sort-of lies and misinformation and slinging of mud doesn’t help one bit.”
He added a new inquiry could leave victims waiting until 2031 for recommendations and continued: “It’s very hard for victims and survivors to come forward and explain what’s happened to them. They do not want to be rushed through this process, which is why the last one took seven years. It’s not sensible to suggest that this can be done in a hurry, on the cheap and comprehensively.”
Mrs Badenoch repeated calls for a full public inquiry, telling MPs: “I’m shocked that the Prime Minister would say that actions were not taken. He knows full well that we accepted 18 of the 20 recommendations in the Jay inquiry, and went further launching a gangs taskforce that found 550 more perpetrators. That shows that there is still work to be done.
“In Rotherham alone, there have been over 1,400 victims. Across Oldham, Bradford, Bristol, Rochdale, and dozens more towns there have been thousands more victims, but no one has joined the dots. No one has the total picture, and it is almost certainly still going on.
“One victim from Telford, and I know he says that victims have different views, we have different views across this House, but one victim from Telford says she wants a national inquiry, because it will hold people accountable in a way that previous inquiries have not.
“It is very possible to have actions, take on more, and still have a national inquiry. So why won’t he listen to victims and launch a national inquiry which would have the power to summon witnesses and make them give evidence under oath?”
But Sir Keir said the focus must be on the victims and survivors, as he pleaded with Tory MPs to “defy the misleading leadership” of Kemi Badenoch.
Responding to the Conservative Leader, Sir Keir said: “There have been a number of inquiries, some of them localised, including the Mayor of Manchester’s inquiry recently, and of course, a national inquiry Professor Jay carried out – took seven years, had 20 recommendations, none of which actually were implemented by the party opposite when they were in government.
“This is a really serious issue and we must focus, obviously, on the victims and survivors. There’s no fixed view from the victims and survivors about a further national inquiry, there are mixed views. But there is a view, and I share this view, that what is needed now is action on what we already know.
“We already know, myself from personal knowledge when I was chief prosecutor, that warped ideas, myths and stereotypes about victims were at the heart of this. We’ve known that for a decade.
“The Jay report called for mandatory reporting. I called for it 11 years ago. What we need now is action. What can’t be tolerated is the idea that this afternoon, members opposite will vote down a Bill which protects children.”
He added: “One of the provisions in the Bill is to protect children vulnerable today, who are out of school, to prevent abusers ever taking those children out of school. I implore members opposite to defy the misleading leadership of the Leader of the Opposition and vote for a really important Bill.”