A third abuse survivor has resigned from their role in the government’s inquiry into grooming gangs.
“Elizabeth” – not her real name – joined Fiona Goddard and Ellie-Ann Reynolds, who quit the inquiry’s victims and survivors liaison panel on Monday in protest.
In her resignation letter, Elizabeth said the process felt like “a cover-up” and had “created a toxic environment for survivors”.
Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips has denied claims of a cover-up and insisted her government was “committed to exposing the failures” to tackle “these appalling crimes”.
Meanwhile, the has been told former senior social worker Annie Hudson, who had been named as a potential chair of the inquiry, has withdrawn following recent media coverage over her candidacy.
One of the other names being considered to lead the inquiry is former deputy chief constable Jim Gamble.
A meeting between Mr Gamble and survivors took place earlier, with both sides said to have listened to each others perspectives.
Ms Goddard and Ms Reynolds had raised concerns about the suitability of the candidates shortlisted to chair the inquiry.
Ms Goddard said the chair should not have a background in policing or social work, arguing those services had “contributed most to the cover-up of the national mass rape and trafficking of children”.
In her resignation letter, Ms Reynolds wrote that having “establishment insiders representing the very systems that failed us” as potential chairs was a conflict of interest.
She also said the “final turning point” in her decision to quit was a move to widen the inquiry “in ways that downplay the racial and religious motivations behind our abuse”.
In her resignation letter, Elizabeth said she was “deeply concerned that there still isn’t a genuine understanding of the grooming gangs scandal”.
“What is happening now feels like a cover-up of a cover-up,” she wrote. “It has created a toxic environment for survivors, filled with pressures that we should not have to deal with.”
Responding to the resignations of Ms Goddard and Ms Reynolds in the House of Commons earlier, Safeguarding Minister Phillips said she regretted the departure of the two women but added: “My door is always open to them.”
She also said “not all victims are of the same opinion – they are not one homogeneous group of people, who all think the same thing, who all want the same exposure, who all want their identities known”.
“I will engage with all the victims, regardless of their opinions, and I will listen to those that have been put in the media, that are put in panels, I will always listen and I will speak to all of them.”
Phillips added that the inquiry panel of victims from which Ms Reynolds and Ms Goddard resigned was not managed by the government, but by a grooming gang charity.
However, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the government’s inquiry was “descending into chaos”.
He argued that ministers had been “forced” into holding the inquiry in June adding: “Perhaps that is why, months later, the government has said nothing substantive publicly.”
The Conservatives have called for the inquiry to be chaired by a senior judge to guarantee impartiality and restore faith in the process.
Phillips rejected that suggestion, arguing that Baroness Casey, who led a previous inquiry into the subject, had said she did not want a traditional judicial-led inquiry.
The minister also stressed the difficulty of finding a chair who was not attached to an institution “that didn’t fail these girls over the years, including our courts who took the children away from grooming gang victims, who criminalised some of them”.
“There is no institution in our country that hasn’t failed,” she added.
Speaking to the ‘s World At One, a campaigner against forced marriage and abuse also criticised the process.
“It feels to me now that [survivors have] been invited to the party, but not invited to the dance. If this is lip service, it’s not real engagement,” said Dame Jasvinder Sanghera, who runs the Karma Nirvana charity.
“Closing doors and making decisions without them about this is absolutely the wrong thing to do.”
