Jess Phillips has 'full support' of PM despite calls from grooming gang survivors for her to resign
The Prime Minister has insisted Jess Phillips has his full support after a group of survivors who resigned from the grooming gangs inquiry called for her to stand down as safeguarding minister.
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The Government is under increasing pressure after four women quit the inquiry’s victims liaison panel, telling the Home Secretary they would only return if Ms Phillips was sacked.
A fifth survivor has now reportedly left the panel, and two candidates have withdrawn from the running to chair the inquiry.
Government ministers have rallied behind Ms Phillips, who has a long history of fighting for women’s rights.
Speaking on Thursday, the PM said: “The most important thing in relation to the grooming gangs is that we have the national inquiry and that absolutely gets to the truth and to justice.”
When asked if Ms Phillips has his full backing, the PM added: “Yes, of course. Jess has been working on issues involving violence against women and girls for many, many years.”
The four women wrote in a letter to Ms Mahmood that Ms Phillips had labelled some of their claims “untrue” and that they had provided evidence to the contrary.
One of them, Ellie-Ann Reynolds, said the final turning point for her was “the push to change the remit, to widen it in ways that downplay the racial and religious motivations behind our abuse”.
Ms Phillips told MPs on Tuesday that “allegations of intentional delay, lack of interest or widening of the inquiry scope and dilution are false”.
Since Tuesday, five other survivors have said they will only continue with the inquiry if Ms Phillips remains in post.
According to a report by the Guardian, the women contacted the PM to say she has “devoted her life to hearing and amplifying the voices of women and girls who would have otherwise been unheard”.
They added: “She has offered some of us support prior to this process, helped survivors access services and help they would not have had without her. In consultation, we have asked for the scope to be larger than just grooming gangs, that was our right to input our opinions, which is the purpose of the panel.
However, in their letter to the Home Secretary, the four victims threatening to quit say that “evidence has since proven we were telling the truth” about Ms Phillips.
They call for 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.
They have also called for the inquiry chair to be a former or sitting judge and for all survivors on the panel to be “genuinely consulted” on the chair’s appointment.
It comes as the only remaining candidate to lead the government's Grooming Gang Inquiry officially withdrew from the process.
Jim Gamble, a former senior police officer, was one of two prospective candidates to lead the probe.
Mr Gamble, who previously chaired the National Crime Agency's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, was one of two candidates chosen to lead the Inquiry.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that social worker Annie Hudson, who previously chaired the government's Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, had stood back from the process.
The revelation piles pressure on the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood who yesterday vowed to continue the Inquiry, insisting the scope "will not change".
The Home Office said it was “disappointed” that candidates to chair that inquiry have withdrawn and that it needed to “take the time to appoint the best person suitable for the role”.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy acknowledged that there had been “setbacks” this week but added that “we move forward”.
“The starting point is: this is hard. My drawing on 25 years of experience in public life, dealing with families experiencing pain, suffering, sometimes grief – and I’m thinking of in my career, scandals like Windrush, like Grenfell Tower – there often is not a uniform voice,” he told reporters.
He said it was “very tough” but that Sir Keir had been clear that the inquiry will leave “no stone unturned” and that the background of the perpetrators including their ethnicity and religion “is absolutely on the table”.
In the Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Sir 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’s audit found “many examples” of organisations shying away from discussion of “ethnicity or cultural factors” in such offences “for fear of appearing racist”.
He said she and Ms Phillips were “the right people to take this forward”.