Pressure is mounting on the government, after four women who resigned from the national grooming gangs inquiry have said they may return if safeguarding minister Jess Phillips resigns.
In a letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, the women listed five conditions that must be met for them to return to the grooming gangs inquiry victims liaison panel.
They said Phillips had labelled some of their claims “untrue” and that they had provided evidence to the contrary.
Phillips told MPs on Tuesday that “allegations of intentional delay, lack of interest or widening of the inquiry scope and dilution are false”.
Survivor Fiona Goddard responded by posting a text message she had sent to Jess Phillips on social media platform X, which showed her raising concerns to the minister over a questionnaire she had received that included a question on whether the scope should be widened.
The survivors’ letter, shared on Ms Goddard’s X account, says: “Being publicly contradicted and dismissed by a government minister when you are a survivor telling the truth takes you right back to that feeling of not being believed all over again.
“It is a betrayal that has destroyed what little trust remained.”
Goddard, Ellie-Ann Reynolds, Elizabeth Harper and a woman signed only as “Jessica” state in the letter that there are five conditions that must be met for them to return to the advisory panel.
As well as Phillips’ resignation, they call for “all survivors on the panel to be genuinely consulted on the appointment of a chair, who must be a former or sitting judge”, victims to be able to speak freely without fear of reprisal, the inquiry’s scope to remain “laser-focused” on grooming gangs and the current victim liaison lead to be replaced by a mental health professional.
“We have been failed by every institution meant to protect us. We were failed as children, we were failed by police who didn’t believe us, failed by social services who blamed us, and failed by a system that protected our abusers.
“We will not participate in an inquiry that repeats those same patterns of dismissal, secrecy, and institutional self-protection.”
Former police officer Jim Gamble, thought to be the only remaining candidate to chair the inquiry, withdrew his name from consideration on Tuesday, saying he did not feel he had a “consensus of trust” among the survivors’ group on account of his previous profession.
Gamble pointed to a “toxic environment” surrounding the chair’s selection, and “political opportunism and point-scoring,” calling it out as regrettable given the severity of the inquiry’s purpose.
He follows Annie Hudson, a former director of children’s services for Lambeth, who was reported to have withdrawn on Tuesday.
The government is now left looking for alternative candidates, as opposition parties call for the position to be filled by a judge.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that candidates to chair that inquiry have withdrawn. This is an extremely sensitive topic, and we have to take the time to appoint the best person suitable for the role.”
In the Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted the inquiry “is not and will never be watered down” and its scope “will not change”.
He said: “It will examine the ethnicity and religion of the offenders, and we will find the right person to chair the inquiry.”
The Prime Minister also vowed in the Commons on Wednesday that “injustice will have no place to hide” as he announced Baroness Louise Casey is being drafted in to support the work of the inquiry.
Baroness Casey previously led a “national audit” of group-based child sexual exploitation that found “many examples” of organisations shying away from discussion of “ethnicity or cultural factors” in such offences “for fear of appearing racist”.
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