Kemi Badenoch has seemingly missed an opportunity to grill Sir Keir Starmer on the failings surrounding Axel Rudakubana’s horrific killings last summer.
The Prime Minister, who vowed not to leave a stone unturned in an inquiry into the Southport murders, might have expected Badenoch to take aim over a number of issues raised by other Conservative colleagues, including Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick.
But speaking in the House of Commons, Badenoch said: “I also know that the thoughts of many will be with the victims of the Southport killings.
“There are important questions to answer and I will return to those after the case is concluded.”
Badenoch missed an opportunity to grill Starmer on the failings surrounding Axel Rudakubana’s horrific killings last summer
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Badenoch continued by instead opting to quiz Starmer on Labour’s education reforms.
Ahead of the Leader of the Opposition’s first intervention, the Prime Minister also addressed the Southport killings.
He said: “We will change the law so that the most serious offenders attend their sentencing hearings.”
In response to the exchange, Reform UK’s deputy leader Richard Tice argued it was “unreal” that Badenoch had not probed Starmer on a topic other than education.
MORE ON KEMI BADENOCH:
Starmer was pressed on Labour’s education reforms rather than the atrocities in Southport
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He said: “Kemi wastes PMQs again. Should have led on Trump and shocking debt figures to challenge Starmer.”
While leader Nigel Farage prodded: “Not a single question on Southport from Kemi Badenoch at PMQs today.
“What is the point of the Tories?”
A friend of Badenoch later told GB News’ Political Editor Christopher Hope that she raised the economy last week and acknowledged the Southport killer at the top of her contribution to PMQs.
Richard Tice warned that Kemi Badenoch had ‘wasted PMQs again’
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While another said there was “genuine anger” from Kemi and the wider party at what Labour is “doing to schools”.
“They’ve put some important stuff on safeguarding in the bill, but the bulk of it is reversing schools freedoms – rolling back academies, giving unions more control over who can be a teacher and reducing curriculum choice.”
Another Badenoch ally came to her defence after PMQs – Tory leadership runner-up Robert Jenrick, who said Sir Keir Starmer “had no answer” to the Leader of the Opposition’s questions – “because there are none”.
