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Kids Company collapsed in August - just days after receiving a £3m grant from the Cabinet Office and in the midst of a police investigation.

As questioning turns to that £3m grant, chairman of trustees Alan Yentob says it was the government saying “let’s get you out of our hair because we have lots of other demands on us".

He says the charity was told in December it would not be getting any more money after 2015, and tells MPs he regrets he "didn't get the message earlier".

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent in Brussels

David Cameron has just met the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker for a handshake in front of press ahead of a working lunch in Brussels. Asked "how did it go" the PM replied "we haven't started yet".

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Alan Yentob is asked whether it was proper to "devote an entire programme" in his Imagine series to Kids Company. He rejects the idea it was an entire programme and says it was about "child and art therapy". He adds that he declared his position as a trustee and there was sufficient oversight of the programme.

He was then asked whether it was appropriate for him to stand behind the producer during Batmanghelidjh's Today programme interview. He says he thought he was there to listen to what the charity founder said but adds that "if it was intimidating then I regret it".

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"My great regret and sadness is we perhaps tried to look after too many children and do too much," says Alan Yentob.

The BBC executive defends his decision to accompany charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh to her Radio 4 Today programme interview.

Asked why he hasn’t been interviewed by the corporation about his role in Kids Company he says a view was taken that it might have been a “conflict of interest".

He rejects allegations raised by Labour MP Paul Flynn that he used his position to try to influence BBC coverage of the failing charity, as "completely untrue".

Asked whether he's satisfied he has been able to separate his two roles - at the BBC and the charity - he says he is.

There is a big cheer as Tommy Sheppard says the unionist parties will rue the day they block reasonable requests from the SNP "every time they say no to a reasonable proposal they are fuelling support for the Yes position the next time that is put to the Scottish people.   And every time they say no to something they increase our ambition to have everything".

Tommy Shephard MP tells the SNP conference the Smith commission has been watered down and has been "a monstrous deceit" committed on the Scottish people. 

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Camila Batmanghelidjh asks committee chairman Bernard Jenkin "on what basis" he has decided Kids Company "is a failing charity"? "Because it's gone bust," he responds.

She says that the charity shut because of the "unfounded" sexual abuse allegations and not because of the way it was run. She says the committee's evidence is based on reports in "the Daily Mail and other media" and accuses them of not having done the "rigorous research required".

It's novel for me to be accused of being a friend of the Daily Mail, quips Labour MP Paul Flynn.

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Are you saying to us that you have no responsibility for failure of the Kids Company, is the question as the session continus. "No, I'm not saying that," replies Alan Yentob. He says he wished the charity had started restructuring earlier and had not made assumptions that it would continue to receive government funding. Challenged over why the charity downgraded a requirement to hold reserves, Mr Yentob says they kept reserves "of a sort, but not enough".

John Swinney tells the SNP conference there's no way he can tell conference Smith has been delivered - Gordon Brown said Scotland would have a settlement as close to federalism as we can get but Swinney says they are not and it needs "immediate action from the UK government."

Angus Robertson MP - the party's leader at Westminster - says David Cameron has failed to deliver "the vow" and tells conference only 9% of Scottish people believe the promised powers are being delivered.

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Responding, committee chairman Bernard Jenkin explains he couldn't accept the letters as "objective evidence"  as they were submitted by Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh - something she disputes.

She argues that staff were unwilling to put their names on the letters "because they feel absolutely unsafe by media behaviour". Mr Jenkin assures her that their names would be kept confidential.

Ms Batmanghelidjh embarks on a lengthy reply in which she says the names will be provided, prompting the chairman to interject and say: "Please stop talking."  

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I dealt with some of the "most disturbed" people that others didn’t want to deal with, says Camila Batmanghelidjh. She says she had a team to assist here in this work, including an "immensely experienced" clinical director and two senior social workers.

Asked about the management of the charity, she lists heads of Human Resources and safeguarding and a financial director - noting that their audits were all "clean".

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Alan Yentob, chairman of trustees for Kids Company, says his relationship with the charity was "very proper".

Noting that he had been in the position since 2002, Conservative MP Cheryl Gillan asked whether he ever considered he'd "passed his sell by date" and should've quit.

Mr Yentob says it's a fair question and concedes "I probably should have stepped down earlier".

But, he adds that he believes his chairmanship was "necessary", due to his connections and experience.

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The SNP, which is holding its conference in Aberdeen, is stronger at Westminster than any Scottish party has ever been; Labour at its peak could not match the proportion of 56 seats out of 59.

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