Sir Keir Starmer is personally intervening to contact victims amid growing turmoil in the national grooming gangs inquiry, after a former Labour minister joined growing calls for safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to resign.
Tony McNulty, who served as a minister under Gordon Brown, said “the inquiry is more important than the minister and the minister should go”.
It comes after the four women who resigned from the inquiry’s victims liaison panel called for Ms Phillips to resign, in a letter to the home secretary accusing her of labelling some of their claims “untrue” and saying they had provided evidence to the contrary.
But in a sign of growing divisions, five survivors who have been invited onto the panel have said they will only continue working with the probe if Ms Phillips remains in post, the Guardian reported on Thursday.
The women contacted the PM and home secretary saying the safeguarding minister has “devoted her life to hearing and amplifying the voices of women and girls who would have otherwise been unheard”.
One of the four calling for Ms Phillips to resign, 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”.
However, in their letter to Shabana Mahmood the four victims say that “evidence has since proven we were telling the truth”.
It is understood that the prime minister is now personally contacting the victims who have resigned from the panel.
Speaking to Times Radio, Mr McNulty said: “When the minister becomes the story and gets in the way of the implementation of the policy, especially in an area as serious as this, then the minister has to go.”
He added: “The issue around the inquiry on grooming is far, far too important to risk by salvaging the reputational post of an individual.”
A Downing Street spokesperson denied that Ms Phillips has been sidelined, telling reporters: “Minister Phillips has spent her career fighting for victims and survivors and trying to protect them from abuse.
“And since being in post as the minister for safeguarding she’s been working incredibly closely with victims and survivors and is determined to get them justice”
The probe was thrown into further chaos on Wednesday afternoon as a second candidate lined up to chair the inquiry, Jim Gamble – thought to be the only remaining candidate – withdrew after survivors raised concerns that he had links to the police.
He follows Annie Hudson, a former director of children’s services for Lambeth who was reported to have withdrawn on Tuesday, and leaves the government looking for alternative candidates.
Ms Reynolds, Fiona Goddard, 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 Ms Phillips’s 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.
But children’s minister Josh MacAlister told Sky News Ms Phillips has the “full backing of the prime minister and home secretary”, insisting she will stay in post.
Ms Phillips is a “lifelong advocate and champion for young girls who’ve been abused” he said, adding that she has “already shown that she’s properly engaging with the survivor community”.
Sir Keir Starmer also gave Ms Phillips his backing at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch claimed she has “lost the confidence” of victims.
The PM said his safeguarding minister has “more experience than any other person in this House in dealing with violence against women and girls”.
“Alongside her will be Louise Casey, these two individuals have spent decades, decades, standing up for those who have been abused and sexually exploited, and I absolutely think they’re the right people to take this forward”, he told the Commons.
Mr MacAlister also refused to guarantee that the chair of the inquiry would be a sitting judge “because we want to get the right person”, but he vowed that the scope of the inquiry would not be broadened.
“Baroness Jay herself, who many of the survivors have got tremendous respect for, was a social worker. Louise Casey herself wasn’t a judge. There’s lots of confidence in her”, he said.
Sir Keir Starmer had earlier announced that he was drafting in Baroness Casey to “support” the work of the struggling probe after the four women from the inquiry’s victims and survivors panel resigned.
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.
“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.”
Mr Gamble, a former police officer, hit out at politicians prioritising “their own petty personal or political issues” and “playing games” with the inquiry.
In his withdrawal letter, he said he had pulled out of the appointment process because of a “lack of confidence” in him among some survivors of grooming gangs “due to my previous occupation”.
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.”
