Tories back Badenoch’s ‘risky’ call for grooming gangs inquiry
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Keir Starmer accuses opposition leader of spending ‘a lot of time on social media over Christmas’. When Kemi Badenoch used prime minister’s questions this week to echo Elon Musk’s demands for a new inquiry into sexual grooming gangs, the MPs behind her were trying to interpret the intentions of their fledgling leader. Was it a long-held view? A short-term move to wrong-foot Labour or appeal to Reform voters? A sign she was adopting a more radical politics?.
There was one point, however, that seemed to unite those with differing theories about their leader’s motives. Her decision to warn Keir Starmer that refusing a fresh inquiry could prompt speculation about a “cover-up” was the kind of political gamble they had expected her to be willing to take.
“The Conservative party is definitely taking a huge risk that it will be accused of being a bunch of hypocrites,” said one Tory strategist. “But in a world where you can campaign locally, where you can get into people’s social media feeds directly, a lot of people aren’t necessarily following the cut and thrust of debate and you can make a lot of headway.”.
Starmer duly accused Badenoch of brandishing a “recently acquired” view on the scandal, which he said came after spending “a lot of time on social media over Christmas”. He said she had failed to raise the issue in parliament over eight years. But across the Tory party, figures said they believed there was a real case for reopening an inquiry given public concern, with one describing the fact she was following Musk’s intervention on the issue as a “red herring”.
