GROOMING gang survivors have demanded Jess Phillips resign as safeguarding minister to restore confidence in the national inquiry.
Four women who this week quit the probe’s Victims Liaison Panel said they would only return if the Labour MP goes from Government.
They called Ms Phillips “unfit” to remain in post after warning she had dismissed their fears about the direction of the inquiry.
The demand from Elizabeth Harper, Fiona Goddard, Ellie-Ann Reynolds and “Jessica” piles pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to sack the safeguarding minister.
In a blistering letter to the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, the survivors said: “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.”
The survivors had taken issue with the final two candidates to chair the inquiry being a retired police officer and a social care boss.
They accused both sectors of having covered up the grooming scandal in the first place and would amount to the culprits “marking their own homework”.
In the Commons yesterday, Sir Keir said the door “remained open” for the four survivors to return to the victims’ panel.
In their letter, the women named their price as Ms Phillips resigning, saying: “Her departure would signal you are serious about accountability and changing direction.”
The grooming gangs inquiry has been plunged into fresh chaos after the remaining candidate to lead it pulled out.
Former police chief Jim Gamble quit just a day after social worker Annie Hudson also withdrew, leaving the flagship probe without a chair.
The former head of the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s Special Branch in Belfast said he was stepping down because some victims had “a lack of confidence” in him “due to my previous occupation”.
Mr Gamble also blasted the “highly charged and toxic environment” surrounding the process, accusing opposition politicians of “opportunism and point-scoring.”
He denied ever having come under pressure to change the scope of the probe and said: “Everybody needs to park their own petty personal or political issues and focus on what’s right for victims.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We are disappointed that candidates to chair that inquiry have withdrawn.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.”
