The four women who resigned from the national grooming gangs inquiry victims liaison panel have said they could return if safeguarding minister Jess Phillips resigns.
They told Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, in a bombshell letter, that Ms Phillips had labelled some of their claims “untrue” and that they had provided evidence to the contrary.
One of the four, 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”.
It came on a day when the government’s national inquiry into grooming gangs descended even further into farce.
The only remaining candidate to chair the probe – former police officer Jim Gamble – quit, blaming the “highly charged and toxic environment”.
Annie Hudson, a former director of children’s services for Lambeth, had already reportedly withdrawn.
