I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Kemi Badenoch

Good grief! Today, I feel obliged to praise Kemi Badenoch, a politician who hitherto has either dismayed or inflamed me. She is divisive and deliberately so. But when she emphatically told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday that a Tory government would bar children under 16 from accessing many social media platforms, I was with her.

So did Labour’s Andy Burnham, who said: “I find myself agreeing with a lot of what Kemi Badenoch is saying about children and social media. It seems to me parents would welcome a cross-party consensus around much bolder action.” Many of them – teachers, social workers, youth workers, prison officers – have been arguing for better child safety online measures for years and years, while successive governments have faffed about.

This Government has imparted mixed messages. Wes Streeting apparently wants more action to protect our young, but Starmer and his Technology Secretary Liz Kendall were unconvinced. Now they are reportedly open to possible controls.

Elon Musk’s Grok AI tool is also causing widespread alarm. It is being used to

visit website