Keir Starmer is standing by Jess Phillips, his embattled safeguarding minister, despite one of the women who quit their role on the national grooming gangs inquiry threatening to sue her.
Lawyers acting on behalf of Fiona Goddard on Friday issued the warning in a letter to Ms Phillips about comments she made about their client and two other victims who quit a panel on the grooming gang inquiry.
The group has already called for Ms Phillips to resign, claiming she had accused them of lying in a letter to the Commons Home Affairs Committee chair Dame Karen Bradley in which she denied the government was “seeking to dilute the focus of the inquiry”.
Ms Goddard’s solicitors, Switalskis, said the suggestion of watering down was “patently not untrue” and Ms Phillips’s letter had been “defamatory” as it suggested their client had been untruthful.
They also referred to a text message conversation in which Ms Goddard raised concerns with Ms Phillips about an item on an agenda for a meeting with survivors that asked whether the inquiry should take a “broader approach” than an “explicit focus on ‘grooming gangs’”.
They said Ms Phillips had replied: “I know it’s hard to trust, but I can promise you no one is trying to manipulate the response, and it is my view it is only a grooming gang’s [sic] specific inquiry, but it is not right for me to make that decision without it being formally consulted on.”
Ms Goddard said she had been “abused and smeared online” as a result of Ms Phillips’s statement.
The solicitors concluded: “Ms Goddard will accept a written apology from Ms Phillips to put an end to this matter.”
Ms Phillips said that their concerns over allegedly widening the scope of inquiry and watering it down were “untrue”.
The planned inquiry has descended into chaos this week, with the last candidate to chair it – Jim Gamble, a child abuse expert who headed up the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) police command – withdrawing because of the public anger around it and victims’ opposition to his appointment.
However, Downing Street has pointed to a statement made by the prime minister this week, where he gave Ms Phillips a vote of confidence to remain as the minister responsible.
Previously, she was the only member of his original Home Office team of ministers to survive the reshuffle despite being under the most pressure to be sacked over her initial reluctance to hold an inquiry into grooming gangs.
On Wednesday, when Tory leader Kemi Badenoch quoted victims’ demands that Ms Phillips resigns or is sacked, Sir Keir responded: “I respect the views of all the survivors, and there are different views – I accept that – but I think the safeguarding minister has probably more experience than any other person in this House in dealing with violence against women and girls, and 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 are the right people to take this forward.”
He also insisted that the inquiry will not be watered down. He told MPs that the victims who resigned from the panel are welcome to return at any time.
He said: “I do acknowledge that in recent days some members, including Fiona, have decided to step away from the panel. Should they wish to return, the door will always be open, but even if they do not, we owe it to them, to Fiona, and to the country to answer the concerns that they have raised.
“The inquiry is not and will never be watered down; its scope will not change, it will examine the ethnicity and religion of the offenders, and we will find the right person to chair it.”
Meanwhile, Ms Phillips’ fellow Birmingham MP Preet Kaur Gill, a former social worker who worked in child protection before being elected in 2017, has stepped into the row, also warning against the inquiry’s focus being widened.
She said: “While child sexual abuse in all its forms demands urgent attention, Casey’s audit was clear that this particular form of organised, group-based exploitation exposes unique institutional failings that have not been addressed through previous inquiries.
“Broadening the scope risks losing the focus that Casey rightly identified.
“The need to hold systems to account for their role in allowing organised grooming and exploitation to persist despite repeated warnings.”
