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Coffee House Shots

Grooming gangs: Kemi accuses Labour of a 'cover up'

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.42.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’ve just had PMQs, which have become much more interesting now that Kemi Badenoch has got her act together. She led on the Grooming Gangs Inquiry after a fourth survivor quit the inquiry over fears that it’s being watered down. She went as far as to say that the government is in a ‘briefing war against survivors’, and accused Labour of a ‘cover-up’. Nigel Farage attempted to upstage proceedings with his own stunt – he watched from the public gallery to make the point that he isn’t given the chance to defend himself or his party. However, Badenoch’s display meant that his tantrum has gone pretty much unnoticed. Is Kemi on the front foot?

Also today, Starmer’s new go-to girl Louise Casey is back in the news as she joins the inquiry. She has been mooted as a potential successor to Chris Wormald, the Cabinet Secretary. There has been a lot of briefing against Wormald – who was a perplexing pick in the first instance – but if they don’t want him why not ‘sack him … and find him an Oxford college(!)’, as Tim suggests?

Oscar Edmondson speaks to Tim Shipman and James Heale.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.


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Transcript

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0:45.6

Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast.

0:49.1

I'm Oscar Brinson, and I'm joined today by Tim Shipman and James Heel.

0:53.0

Now, we've just had PMQs, which has become infinitely more interesting now that Kemi Badeenog has got her act together. She led on the grooming gang's inquiry. Let's hear a quick clip.

0:58.2

Because this is about Labour failure. Labor never wanted this inquiry. We demanded it.

1:03.7

It has been Labour-run councils, Trafford, Bradford, Blackpool, they try to suppress the truth.

1:10.7

It is Labour ministers attacking the victims.

1:13.3

We're standing up for them. And how is it, Mr Speaker? How is it that whether it is rape or Chinese

1:19.6

espionage, when he's in a position to do something about it, it's always someone else's fault?

1:25.4

So James, firstly, could you just explain for listeners why the grooming

1:29.0

gang scandal is back in the news? Well, this is because it's now four members of the panel

1:33.5

advising the charity on the ongoing setting up of this inquiry have now resigned. There was a big

1:39.7

storm in the commons yesterday about this. Jess Phillips, very angry accusing the opposition of playing politics. It's an issue where the Conservatives have scored some tactical wins. You remember at the beginning of the year? Labor, of course, is very much saying we're not going to do an inquiry into grooming gangs. Then, over the summer, they capitulated that it was going to be one. Now four months on, there are the age-old questions about inquiries, one of which is the scope being potentially expanded too much, which has prompted these resignations, and of course, who's going to chair this inquiry, because everyone who could chair it has some links to some of the establishment involved. So, for instance, social services, policing figure, and it's sort of very reminiscent to the last time we did one of these, which was the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. They got Lady Justice Goddard from New Zealand, proved to be a bit of a disaster end up being Alexis Jane's name on that report. So the technicalities of the inquiry have produced what happened today, and Kevin Baynock chose to go on it because it's something which she's fairly strong on, has scored some wins, and she produced a reasonably decent performance. It was quite a sort of fraught, tempestuous affair, relatively, which it wasn't people sort of going part of some talking points, but overall, I think that it made it quite uncomfortable for the Prime Minister, and it's something where, because of the stakes involved, I think it's something that gets people talking, and it's clearly something she thinks has got a bit of cut through. Tim, some people are celebrating this as a sort of hat trick for Kemi Badernach. She's had two very good PMQs in the past couple of weeks, now a third in which is obviously sort of on home turf with this kind of line of questioning. What did you make of it? Yeah, I mean, Starma was squirming like a worm in a tackle box, wasn't he?

3:08.5

He was trying to sort of do that.

3:11.1

Well, I'm very statesmanlike, and I agree that we've launched this inquiry and that it needs to be serious.

3:17.3

He didn't really have much to say about Jess Phillips.

...

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