Kids Company: ex-charity boss Batmanghelidjh's 'verbal ectoplasm'
Camila Batmanghelidjh and Alan Yentob face grilling by select committee on failed charity
Camila Batmanghelidjh, the charismatic founder of the former children's charity Kids Company, was yesterday accused of "verbal ectoplasm" and "non-stop psychobabble" as she answered questions put by MPs.
During a three-hour grilling, she and the former chairman of trustees Alan Yentob denied that Kids Company had "failed" and claimed its closure had led to stabbings, suicide attempts and even a murder. They said the charity had closed because of false allegations of sexual misconduct.
Yentob and Batmanghelidjh also admitted that Kids Company used to hand out up to £200 cash a week each to vulnerable children with which to pay drug dealers, says the Daily Mail.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company's chief executive until July this year, was questioned by the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee alongside Yentob.
Once a pet project of David Cameron's because it seemed to reflect his 'big society' philosophy, Kids Company was forced to close under a cloud in August when the government refused to renew its funding.
There have been repeated allegations, including concerns raised by the Cabinet Office, that the charity was badly and autocratically run, wasteful and over-staffed by employees with mysterious jobs.
There have also been claims that Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company mishandled allegations of sexual assaults at the charity. Yentob and Batmanghelidjh both strongly denied those allegations yesterday. A police investigation is ongoing.
Yesterday's select committee exchanges were "ferocious", says The Guardian. MP Paul Flynn accused Batmanghelidjh of using a "non-stop spiel, psychobabble… verbal ectoplasm" and a "torrent" of words, rather than answer questions directly.
At one point, as Yentob was denying that there had been any cause for concern about Kids Company's financial viability back in 2014, Batmanghelidjh tried to speak.
This was not her first attempt to interrupt his answer and committee chairman Bernard Jenkin shouted "Order!" at Batmanghelidjh, says Donald Macintyre in The Independent. She replied: "I don't know that shouting is going to get me to behave any better."
Yentob, meanwhile, looked "like a pudding waiter sitting next to a fruit salad", writes the Mail's Quentin Letts, referring to Batmanghelidjh's habitually colourful and idiosyncratic clothing.
Yentob denied that there had been a conflict of interest between his position at the charity and his role as a senior BBC executive, once the corporation's journalists began to investigate the struggling charity.
The Mail says that Yentob told the MPs he had "in no way" attempted to influence reporting, despite having telephoned Newsnight and Radio 4 as both were about to broadcast reports about Kids Company.
Insisting that the charity had been in good health financially before its closure and was not mismanaged, the two former Kids Company bosses blamed the sexual misconduct allegations for its collapse.
Batmanghelidjh has previously said that the claims frightened off her private donors who had been on the point of matching the government's final £3m payment.
She repeated the claim she made in the summer that civil servants had briefed against her. But both she and Yentob were quite clear that Whitehall was not the source of the allegations of sexual misconduct.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Voters know Biden and Trump all too well'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Is the Gaza war tearing US university campuses apart?
Today's Big Question Protests at Columbia University, other institutions, pit free speech against student safety
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
DOJ settles with Nassar victims for $138M
Speed Read The settlement includes 139 sexual abuse victims of the former USA Gymnastics doctor
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Will Aukus pact survive a second Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question US, UK and Australia seek to expand 'game-changer' defence partnership ahead of Republican's possible return to White House
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
It's the economy, Sunak: has 'Rishession' halted Tory fightback?
Today's Big Question PM's pledge to deliver economic growth is 'in tatters' as stagnation and falling living standards threaten Tory election wipeout
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Why your local council may be going bust
The Explainer Across England, local councils are suffering from grave financial problems
By The Week UK Published
-
Rishi Sunak and the right-wing press: heading for divorce?
Talking Point The Telegraph launches 'assault' on PM just as many Tory MPs are contemplating losing their seats
By Keumars Afifi-Sabet, The Week UK Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
How the biggest election year in history might play out
The Explainer Votes in world's biggest democracies, as well as its most 'despotic' and 'stressed' countries, face threats of violence and suppression
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Good democracies include their poorest citizens. The UK excludes them'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published