Kemi Badenoch slapped down BBC Breakfast’s Naga Munchetty as the pair rowed about Netflix’s Adolescence series. The Tory leader previously said she had not watched the hit programme, insisting it was a fictional show and saying she had already campaigned on many of the programme’s core themes.
Appearing on the BBC Breakfast sofa on Thursday, co-host Charlie Stayt asked yet again whether Mrs Badenoch had managed to watch the show. The Essex MP said she still has not and confessed she probably never will because “most of my time right now is spent visiting the country”. In a 14-
Munchetty jumped in to argue: “It’s a four-part series on Netflix and everyone is talking about it. It’s prompting conversations about toxic masculinity, smartphone use, young men feeling that they’re being ignored, the idea of misogyny increasing in school – why would you not want to know what people are talking about?”
Kemi Badenoch argued that she did not need to watch a fictional series (Image: BBC)
Mrs Badenoch immediately hit back: “I think those are all important issues, and those are issues that I’ve been talking about for a long time. But in the same way I don’t need to watch Casualty to know what’s going on in the NHS, I don’t need to watch a specific Netflix drama to know what’s going on. It’s a fictional series. It’s not a documentary.”
She went on to point out she has been actively campaigning to ban smartphones in schools. She met head teachers and pupils on Wednesday to tackle the issue that is causing disruption in the classroom.
Munchetty doubled down, arguing that the series has “made much more of an impact than any politician has in terms of what people are talking about right now”.
Naga Munchetty questioned Kemi Badenoch’s decision not to watch Adolescence (Image: BBC)
She said she was confused about why Mrs Badenoch did not “want to know how this has made an impact”.
Mrs Badenoch argued: “I can read what people are saying about it, I look at research – this is something I have been looking at for a long time.”
She also argued that she is bothered that the Government seems more interested in Adolescence than the real scandal of Asian grooming gangs and the rape of young white girls and boys.
“Just yesterday we had Labour telling us they’re not going to be investigating the rape gang scandal – something that happened all across the country, that’s real, that’s happening right now.
“We’re not talking about that, we’re talking about a fictional documentary.”
