Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips can restore relations with grooming gang survivors so the inquiry can go forward, Harriet Harman has mentioned.
A row over who chairs and oversees the long-awaited inquiry into grooming gangs has seen 4 of about 30 survivors on the panel stop and say they’ll solely return if Ms Phillips resigns.
The ladies, who’re overseeing the organising of the inquiry, have accused her of eager to develop the inquiry’s scope so it focuses on greater than grooming gangs – one thing Ms Phillips denies.
Baroness Harman, a former Labour residence secretary, advised Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast she thinks there was miscommunication with some survivors which “can be solved if there is underlying trust and confidence”.
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She mentioned this example has occurred earlier than, with the Grenfell hearth inquiry when family and friends of these killed weren’t completely satisfied in regards to the unique chair or scope, however got here round and had been glad with the result.
It additionally occurred, she mentioned, when murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence’s dad and mom didn’t belief then-home secretary Jack Straw to arrange an inquiry into the dealing with of the police investigation.
“Actually, that trust was built, although at the outset of the [Lawrence] inquiry their lawyers stood up and asked for it to be adjourned and suspended indefinitely,” she mentioned.
“And that happened before it actually got going and became a really important landmark inquiry.”
5 different survivors invited on to the kid sexual exploitation inquiry panel have written to Sir Keir Starmer to say they’ll proceed working with the investigation provided that the safeguarding minister stays.
They are saying they imagine Phillips has remained neutral and so they need her to “remain in position for the duration of the process for consistency”.
Sir Keir has backed Ms Phillips to proceed in her place.
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Fiona Goddard is among the 4 to go away the inquiry
Baroness Harman mentioned Ms Phillips was “wrong to attack the people that are coming after her” after the minister gave a fiery rebuke within the Commons over criticism of the inquiry, together with about its scope and about two potential chairs – an ex-senior police officer and a former social employee – who’ve each now withdrawn.
One of many survivors, Ellie Reynolds, mentioned she felt an inquiry had turn into “less about the truth and more about a cover-up”.
Ms Phillips, who beforehand managed Girls’s Assist refuges for home abuse victims, denied this and insisted the federal government was “committed to exposing the failures”.
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PM backs Jess Phillips over grooming gangs
Baroness Harman mentioned the minister’s “attack… made the situation far more difficult”.
However she added: “It must be exasperating for Jess Phillips to have her credibility, her commitment, her integrity questioned by people who’ve made no commitment to the struggles that she’s given her life’s work to.
“However though it have to be exasperating, she will be able to’t afford to be exasperated as a result of that is about answering the questions which were put.
“Because watching this is not just the 30 who are on the panel that have been chosen by the government to help with the inquiry, but it’s the thousands of other girls who’ve been abused and for whom this inquiry matters enormously.”
