Kids Company founder accuses Dominic Cummings of 'smear campaign'
Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh compares charity giving children cash which they spent on drugs with middle class parents handing out pocket money as she accuses Dominic Cummings of ‘smear campaign’ after High Court win
- Camila Batmanghelidjh asked why when poorer kids get cash ‘it is drugs money’
- She said youngsters often did not do this because ‘they get drugs for couriering’
- On Woman’s Hour she was asked about teen who bought drugs with charity cash
- Ms Batmanghelidjh also hit out at ex-Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings
The founder of Kids Company has compared children spending the charity’s cash on drugs to middle class parents handing out pocket money.
Camila Batmanghelidjh asked why when poor children are given money ‘it straight away becomes drugs money’.
But the former chief executive added cash-strapped youngsters often did not use handouts to get illegal substances – because ‘they are given it for couriering’.
She was replying to Woman’s Hour host Emma Barnett, who referenced a teenager who in 2015 boasted she spent Kids Company cash on weed.
Ms Batmanghelidjh also lashed out at Dominic Cummings as she claimed he briefed against her charity.
The heated interview was her first since she won a High Court disqualification battle to stop her holding company directorships as a result of her handling of the charity.
Camila Batmanghelidjh (pictured in 2015) asked why when poor children are given money ‘it straight away becomes drugs money’
Ms Batmanghelidjh also lashed out at former Downing Street aide Dominic Cummings (pictured in December) as she claimed he briefed against her charity
Ms Barnett said: ‘One of the youngsters helped by the kids company told radio 4’s the report that when she was given money… ”we would queue up, sign our names down, get an envelope with £30 and an oyster travel card.
”Then we would go to the shop and buy whatever we wanted with that money. It was weed heaven on a Friday. You could smell weed coming down from the landings”.’
‘Kids using money from a charity to go and buy weed. Is that reality? Is that what we have to get used to? What do you make of that?’
Timeline of the Kids Company scandal
July 2015 – Police launch a probe into allegations of abuse and exploitation at the charity, following the broadcast of a BBC Newsnight report. This was eventually dropped seven months later.
August 2015 – Kids Company collapses despite repeated warnings over its perilous financial state – just days after it was given a £3million government grant.
October 2015 – National Audit Office questions why government money was paid to the charity with ‘little focus on what it was actually achieving’.
November 2015 – The Public Accounts Committee describes the charity as a failed ’13 year experiment’ and criticised both the Labour and Conservative governments for continuing to give public money against civil service advice.
December 2015 – BBC Creative Director Alan Yentob – who served as chairman of the charity – steps down after being accused of trying to put pressure on BBC journalists reporting on the scandal.
2016 – MPs on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) call on the BBC to reopen its investigation into Mr Yentob, over claims he ‘deliberately intimidated’ corporation staff.
2017 – Camila Batmanghelidjh publishes her biography. In interviews before its release, she defends sending drug addict called Dave to Champneys spa to relax with a ‘chocolate massage’ thrown in to boost his self-esteem. The trip allegedly cost £55,000.
October 2020 – The Insolvency Service begins its legal bid to disqualify Camila Batmanghelidjh and nine former directors from the charity, including Mr Yentob, from serving as company directors.
February 2, 2021 – A judge throws out the bid.
Batmanghelidjh replied: ‘I think that’s really interesting. Middle class people give their children pocket money, when it comes to poor people getting pocket money it straight away becomes drugs money.
‘If you know what goes on on the street, these children often don’t need the cash to buy drugs because they are given it for couriering.
‘If you put a microphone in front of a teenagers mouth and you get them to say things they will say things and maybe they go and smoke weed with friends on a Friday but what secondary school doesn’t have that problem.’
She added: ‘What you have to do is deal with it and get children off drugs.’
Ms Barnett was referring to comments made by a teenager who used the charity on a Radio 4 segment in August 2015.
The child bragged about using charity money to buy drugs just days after it was closed amid claims of financial mismanagement, which were dismissed in court.
The youngster said she and her friends would splash the spending money they were given on cannabis.
She told Radio 4’s The Report: ‘We would queue up and sign our names down and get an envelope with £30 and an Oyster travelcard.
‘Then we would go to the shop and buy whatever we wanted with that money. It was weed heaven on a Friday, you could smell it coming down from the landings.’
The charity, which supported vulnerable young people in London and Bristol had famous backers such as David Cameron but it was wound up in 2015.
The closure came shortly after police launched a subsequently-dropped probe into unfounded allegations of abuse and exploitation – aired by BBC Newsnight.
Earlier this month, the charity’s trustees said they had been ‘exonerated’ when Mrs Justice Falk concluded no disqualification order should be made against them.
Ms Batmanghelidjh also hit out at former Downing Street aide Mr Cummings, accusing him of briefing against the organisation.
She said on Woman’s Hour: ‘I personally think it was a smear campaign and I think there were two targets.
‘One is, I believe, David Cameron, because he was seen to have chosen us as Big Society and I think the Brexit team wanted to discredit him, because I don’t understand why Dominic Cummings, whom we had never met, was briefing against us in 2015.
‘And I think another bit was campaigning for child protection issues and I think the country has no capacity to address its child protection problems.
‘And I think we got sandwiched between these two concerns and that was why there was such a ferocious attack on us.’
The charity collapsed in 2015, just weeks after it was handed a £3million grant by David Cameron’s government with ministers said to be ‘in thrall’ of founder Ms Batmanghelidjh who was handed piles of taxpayers’ cash
She then called for Michael Gove to apologise to children who lost support from the collapsed charity.
She accused the senior minister on Thursday of having been ‘really disingenuous’ during the police probe.
She said the now Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster had initially supported the charity’s work and handed her a CBE when he was in the Department for Education.
She said: ‘By 2015 he was saying he never wanted Kids Co funded, you know, and I find it very difficult when people change colours.
‘I can live without Michael Gove’s apology but the staff and the children are owed an apology from Michael Gove, (former Conservative MP) Oliver Letwin, all these people who promised that they were going to help us resolve the fact that children were pouring in through our doors, you know, and the reason I clashed with the Cabinet Office was because when I realised they’re not taking responsibility.’
The Official Receiver brought High Court proceedings against Ms Batmanghelidjh, as well as seven former trustees, including the BBC’s ex-creative director Alan Yentob.
The OR argued Ms Batmanghelidjh and the former trustees were ‘unfit’ to hold company directorships as a result of their handling of the charity.
But, in a ruling on February 12, Mrs Justice Falk rejected the case and praised the ‘enormous dedication’ the founder showed vulnerable young people.
She ruled: ‘The public need no protection from these trustees.
‘On the contrary, this is a group of highly impressive and dedicated individuals who selflessly gave enormous amounts of their time to what was clearly a highly challenging trusteeship.’
A statement issued on behalf of the former trustees said: ‘Kids Company was forced to close in August 2015 following what the judge records as ‘unfounded allegations’ of child abuse, which made fundraising from private and government sources impossible.
‘We are pleased that finally the facts have been gathered and assessed in a court of law, and that Mrs Justice Falk has exonerated both the former trustees and Kids Company chief executive Camila Batmanghelidjh.’
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