Keir Starmer’s national grooming gang inquiry has been left in turmoil after two survivors resigned from its oversight panel and accused the Home Office and Labour of “contempt” and “political interference” before it has appointed a chair.
Ellie-Ann Reynolds and Fiona Goddard resigned on Monday from the inquiry’s oversight panel complaining of “condescending and controlling language used towards survivors” during the process.
Two prospective candidates to chair the inquiry, the former deputy chief constable Jim Gamble and the chair of the child safeguarding practice review panel, Annie Hudson, are due to meet the panel on Tuesday.
Reynolds, from Barrow, said in a statement: “The Home Office held meetings we weren’t told about, made decisions we could not question and withheld information that directly affected our work. When I asked for clarity, I was treated with contempt and ignored.”
Goddard, who was abused while living in a children’s home in Bradford, made a series of criticisms against the way the inquiry was being handled – including victims’ fears about conflicts of interest among those involved.
The Guardian disclosed last week that the terms of the statutory investigation are still being discussed by the panel of stakeholders including survivors of abuse rings, four months after the prime minister bowed to pressure and set it up.
Survivors have objected to demands by a Labour mayor to expand the inquiry to look at regions as a whole instead of focusing on known grooming gang victims. They believe it will water down the inquiry, lengthen the time it takes to conclude, and move focus away from proven victims.
Tracy Brabin, the mayor of West Yorkshire, and her deputy, Alison Lowe, lobbied the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, last month to ask that the inquiry examines grooming gang activity across their entire region.
But survivors close to the inquiry have criticised these demands. One source said: “Survivors want justice and that means focusing on specific victims in specific places and getting to the bottom of who knew what and when. If you widen the inquiry, it will become too vague.”
Concerns over the length of the inquiry have been heightened after the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) led by Prof Alexis Jay took seven years to conclude.
In her resignation email from the victims/survivor liaison panel, Goddard wrote that she was concerned that some stakeholders have “affiliations with members of the Labour government that presents a potential conflict of interest”.
“Expanding the scope of this inquiry risks it being watered down and once again, failing to get to the truth,” she wrote.
“We have repeatedly faced suggestions from officials to expand this inquiry, and there is real fear from survivors, including myself, that it will turn into another IICSA, with grooming gang victims forgotten.”
After the announcement of the inquiry, Brabin and Lowe met survivors across the region, and wrote to Mahmood in September to call for a region-wide inquiry.
Sixty-one defendants have been charged and are standing trial or are listed to stand trial related to 14 investigations across Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield.
Asked to respond to survivors’ concerns about the remit and claims of political interference, Lowe said: “Our actions here in West Yorkshire have always been guided by survivors and that is why we are taking action to get them justice.
“The evidence shows that this appalling crime is not confined to one part of our region.
“We have written to the home secretary to invite the chair of the inquiry to West Yorkshire, as well as examining the issues within each district, so we can ensure justice is provided for all victims.”
In an email sent on Monday morning, Goddard wrote that she was concerned that the inquiry could be chaired by either a former police officer or a social worker, two services suspected of covering up the rape and trafficking of children.
“This is a disturbing conflict of interest, and I fear the lack of trust in services from years of failings and corruption will have a negative impact in survivor engagement with this inquiry,” she wrote. Gamble has been approached for a comment. Hudson declined to comment.
Lawyer Richard Scorer, the head of abuse law and public inquiries at Slater and Gordon, who represents about 30 grooming gang victims, said: “I’m very concerned at the suggestions I’ve heard that the Home Office is seeking to stage-manage this process.
“I know survivors are concerned about it too. To be effective, this inquiry has to be able, where necessary, to criticise the actions of politicians both at national and local level.
“Political interference at such an early stage in the process, if that is what is going on, does not bode well.”
In a letter to the home affairs select committee released on Monday night, the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, denied any cover-up, saying: “This could not be further from the truth.”
She added: “It is by no means exceptional for an inquiry to be announced a few months before a chair is appointed, with the UK Covid and infected blood inquiries both taking seven months until a chair was appointed.
“It has further been reported that no judicial candidates have been willing to take on the role; this too is categorically untrue.
“It has been reported that the government is seeking to dilute the focus of the inquiry, either by instructing it to take a regional approach to investigations or by expanding the scope beyond ‘grooming gangs’. This is also untrue.
“The conduct and procedure of the inquiry will be a matter for the chair, but the terms of reference will be clear that its scope will be laser-focused, as Baroness Casey recommended.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The abuse of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes imaginable.
“We will do everything in our power to ensure these crimes never happen again. That is why we have launched a statutory inquiry – equipped with the powers and resources required to get to the truth and deliver justice to the survivors.”
