Children’s Minister Josh MacAlister offered a strong defence of Ms Phillips, and insisted his colleague was ‘properly engaging’ with survivors of the grooming gang scandal
A minister has vowed Jess Phillips will stay in post after the four women who resigned from the national grooming gangs inquiry said they could return if the safeguarding minister resigned.
In a letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, they said that Ms Phillips had labelled some of their claims “untrue” and that they had provided evidence to the contrary.
Now Children’s Minister Josh MacAlister has offered a strong defence of Ms Phillips, and insisted his colleague was “properly engaging” with survivors of the grooming gang scandal.
READ MORE: Potential grooming gangs chair accuses Kemi Badenoch of ‘weaponising’ inquiry
Appearing on Sky News, he said: “Jess will stay in post. Jess has the full backing of the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary. I know Jess, she’s been a lifelong advocate and champion for young girls who’ve been abused. She has already shown that she’s properly engaging with the survivor community.”
Mr MacAlister then suggested opposition to Ms Phillips stemmed from a misunderstanding over the scope of the inquiry. He explained: “They disagree with some of the processes that have been followed, so for example, I think one of the things in dispute at the moment is the scope of the review.
“The Government has been really clear about this, my understanding is the survivors were asked as part of the process, are there other aspects of child abuse, sexual abuse and group-based sexual abuse that should be considered, and even just asking that question made some survivors think hang on a minute this is going beyond the scope that was originally set out. Some survivors took from that that the scope was going to be broadened”.
One of the four women to quit, 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 the Home Secretary, the four victims say that “evidence has since proven we were telling the truth”.
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.
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 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”.