The person thought to be the last remaining candidate to chair the grooming gang inquiry has withdrawn from contention, plunging the probe into fresh chaos.
Jim Gamble, a former police officer, has taken his name out of the running.
A Home Office spokesperson said on Wednesday that they are “disappointed that candidates to chair that inquiry have withdrawn”.
In a letter to the home secretary, Mr Gamble said that there was a “highly charged and toxic environment that has surrounded and influenced the appointment process”.
He also said that “among some” victims and survivors there is a “lack of confidence due to my previous occupation exists”.
Mr Gamble went on: “The reaction to the appointment process has been defined more by the vested interests of some, as well as political opportunism and point-scoring, rather than by the cross-party consensus required to address such a serious national issue.
“Victims and survivors, who have been let down so often in the past, deserve better than to be used as leverage for short-term gain by anyone. Moving forward. I hope they remain at the absolute centre of this inquiry.”
A former police officer in Northern Ireland, where he was head of the Belfast region for the now-disbanded Royal Ulster Constabulary Special Branch, Mr Gamble led the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command of the National Crime Agency until 2010.
Mr Gamble’s departure follows Annie Hudson, a former director of children’s services for Lambeth in London, who was reported to have pulled out on Tuesday.
Four survivors have also resigned from the inquiry’s victims and survivors panel. They cited concerns that the individuals being considered to chair the probe had connections to the police or social services.
They also cited a “toxic environment” and proposals to widen the scope of the inquiry.
The Home Office spokesperson said on Wednesday: “The grooming gang scandal was one of the darkest moments in this country’s history.
“That is why this government is committed to a full, statutory, national inquiry to uncover the truth. It is the very least that the victims of these hideous crimes deserve.
“We are disappointed that candidates to chair that inquiry have withdrawn.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.
“The home secretary has been clear: there will be no hiding place for those who abused the most vulnerable in our society.”
Earlier on Wednesday Sir Keir had attempted to save the struggling probe by announcing that Baroness Louise Casey was being brought in to “support the work” of the inquiry.
He told MPs that “injustice will have no place to hide”, adding that the “door will always be open” to those survivors who quit the probe’s survivors’ panel, should they wish to return.
Responding to Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir said: “The inquiry is not and will never be watered down. Its scope will not change.”
He also said: “I can tell the House today, Dame Louise Casey will now support the work of the inquiry and it will get to the truth.
“Injustice will have no place to hide.”
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”.
Her findings, published in June 2025, prompted Sir Keir to order the creation of the national inquiry.
