David Cameron last night faced claims he was ‘mesmerised’ by the controversial founder of Kids Company – as the scandal-ridden charity finally collapsed.
The PM’s ties to Camila Batmanghelidjh came under scrutiny amid toxic claims that No 10 pushed through millions more pounds of funding despite widespread concerns about mismanagement. This was furiously denied by No 10.
But yesterday Frances Harniman, a finance officer at Kids Company, told the BBC: ‘I work in finance so I saw a lot of what I deemed to be inappropriate spending on staff members whose jobs we really didn’t understand.’
Figures uncovered by the Mail show the number of staff ballooned fourfold in seven years and now tops 650.
Kids Company went bust only days after ministers signed off a £3million cheque in the face of an official warning from senior civil servants that the charity was a mess.
Last night Miss Batmanghelidjh lashed out, blaming everyone but herself for the failure of the charity.
The charity formally closed its doors at 7pm yesterday, 19 years after it was set up by Miss Batmanghelidjh. In that time it received some £37million of public money.
There were fears the £3million handed over by ministers would not be recovered.
The BBC reported claims from ‘senior figures’ that Mr Cameron was ‘mesmerised’ by Miss Batmanghelidjh and that opponents of the new funding were ‘all over-ridden by Number 10’.
In addition, a former ministerial advisor pointed the finger directly at Mr Cameron for overruling ministerial opposition to more money for the charity three years ago.
Dominic Cummings, a former adviser to Michael Gove when he was Education Secretary said objections to more money were steamrollered by the PM personally in 2012 and again in 2014 – after Miss Batmanghelidjh contacted the PM directly. Mr Cummings told Channel 4 News: ‘Officials came to me and the private office, and said “Here are our concerns”.
‘We went through it all with Michael [Gove] who made the decision they would get no more money. She (Camila Batmanghelidjh) wrote to Cameron.
‘Cameron’s office then told our Private Office that the Prime Minister personally ordered that the money be paid. This was in the period 2011-12.’
He said a similar incident happened in 2014. ‘Officials tried again to stop it and Cameron again said “Give them the money”. Camila went directly to Cameron.’
Miss Batmanghelidjh was feted by Gordon Brown and Mr Cameron, and addressed Tory conference. Famous for her colourful dress, she attracted legions of celebrity supporters including JK Rowling.
Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2015 2:15 am