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”.
Several Tory figures said a big moment came when Andy Burnham, Labour’s prominent mayor of Greater Manchester, said there should be a “limited” national inquiry into grooming gangs. He said that a scope of the local inquiry he had commissioned in Oldham did not have the same legal powers.
A Badenoch ally also rejected the idea she was using the issue opportunistically. “Throughout her political career Kemi has always asked the difficult questions and given a voice to the voiceless,” they said. “Now, as leader of the opposition, she wants to use her position to make sure the government doesn’t sweep uncomfortable truths under the carpet.”
Other Tories pointed to the fact that last week Badenoch warned her shadow cabinet not to expect any big Conservative policy announcements for the next two years – an attempt to focus on the next general election and not rush into fixed positions. That has created the need to find ways to have an impact in the meantime, they said.
“She shows some quite interesting smarts by saying ‘I’m not going to be rushed into taking mad or definitive positions when we’re four years out from another general election,’ said a senior Tory. “Meanwhile, she has thought ‘I have to live in the real world, where Reform is snapping at my heels. Social media is going completely bonkers. The time between one news cycle to another is ever shortening and people expect me to be making some noise, so I have to find some things to make the weather.’ So she’s picked this.”
Another former minister agreed that Badenoch was doing the right thing in waiting to draw up major policies, but regarded her championing of a new grooming gangs inquiry as a sign that she will be unable to resist being drawn into every issue. “She genuinely is sticking to a plan that will mean you’ve got some policy ideas in 2027 that feel like they’re sticky enough for the next election,” he said. “What there isn’t is evidence that she is able to stick rigidly to that and therefore not randomly say headline-grabbing things. The child grooming issue has become so topical that you have to say something.
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“It is indisputably true that, because of a range of pretty unpalatable figures, it has rocketed up the news agenda, but that doesn’t change the fact that now mainstream politicians have got to deal with it. The problem is simply that whatever you say about it, she can now reasonably be accused of trying to make political capital out of it.”
