The grooming gangs inquiry descended deeper into chaos today as another potential chair dropped out.
Former police officer Jim Gamble has stepped away from the process blaming the ‘highly charged and toxic environment’.
Annie Hudson, a former director of children’s services for Lambeth, had already now reportedly withdrawn.
The latest blow came as Keir Starmer denied a ‘cover-up’ and fended off calls to sack the minister responsible.
In bruising clashes at PMQs, Sir Keir insisted the probe would not be ‘watered down’ to avoid considering ‘racial and religious motivations’.
But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Jess Phillips had lost the confidence of victims, after they complained that the safeguarding minister had accused them of ‘lying’ about efforts to limit the scope.
The premier defended Ms Phillips’ bullish performance in the House yesterday, saying she had ‘more experience than probably any other person in this House in dealing with violence against women and girls’.
He has drafted in Baroness Casey to help salvage the fledgling probe, with insiders refusing completely to rule out the peer running it – even though she is working on other key government policies.
Home Office sources said they were looking at a ‘range’ of candidates to take the job.
A spokesman for the department said: ‘We are disappointed that candidates to chair that inquiry have withdrawn.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 for the role.’
Tory frontbencher James Cleverly said: ‘The level of incompetence would be funny were it not for the fact that it will add further pain to those women and girls who suffered at the hands of rape gangs.’
The row has been threatening to spiral out of control after Ms Phillips further enraged critics with her defiant stance yesterday.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood issued a statement at 10pm offering reassurance that she was committed to the process.
However, fellow Cabinet minister Emma Reynolds acknowledged in interviews this morning that trust must be ‘rebuilt’ with victims.
The row escalated on Monday when Ms Phillips, who is overseeing the setting up of the inquiry, sent a letter to the Commons’ home affairs select committee insisting it was ‘untrue’ ministers were seeking to widen the inquiry remit.
However, that was flatly contradicted by survivor Fiona Goddard, who resigned from the inquiry liaison panel.
It emerged yesterday that the victims’ group was sent consultation papers which asked: ‘Should the inquiry have an explicit focus on ‘grooming gangs’… or take a broader approach?’
Ms Goddard asked Ms Phillips about the move last month in text messages, which have also been released.
The extracts, obtained by campaign group Open Justice UK, appeared to contradict the letter sent by Ms Phillips to the Commons’ committee.
Many victims believe widening the inquiry will dilute its focus on the failure of local authorities, police and other officials to tackle grooming by largely Pakistani gangs.
Ms Goddard has said the minister should resign or be fired.
In this Commons today, Mrs Badenoch said: ‘Let’s remember these are victims who waived their anonymity, an incredibly difficult thing to do, and they believe that the safeguarding minister has lied to them and about them.
‘One of the survivors has said, and I quote ‘Jess Phillips needs to be removed because I don’t think her conduct during this has been acceptable for the position that she holds’.
‘Those aren’t my words, those are the words of a survivor, it is a shame that Labour MPs are drowning that out.
‘The member for Birmingham Yardley has clearly lost the confidence of the victims. Does she still have the confidence of the Prime Minister?’
Sir Keir Starmer replied: ‘I respect the views of all the survivors, and there are different views. I accept that. But the safeguarding minister, I think, has probably more experience than any other person in this House in dealing with violence against women and girls.
‘Alongside her will be Louise Casey, these two individuals have spent decades, decades, standing up for those who have been abused and sexually exploited, and I absolutely think they’re the right people to take this forward.’
Mrs Badenoch said: ‘The victims have said that she should be sacked. We on this side of the House believe that she should be sacked, because this is about Labour failure. Labour never wanted this inquiry, we demanded it.
‘It has been Labour-run councils, Trafford, Bradford, Blackpool, that tried to suppress the truth. It is Labour ministers attacking the victims. We’re standing up for them. And how is it that whether it is rape or Chinese espionage, when he’s in a position to do something about it, it’s always someone else’s fault?’
The PM said: ‘My priorities are listening to and standing up for the survivors. That’s why we’re doing the work on the inquiry. That’s why we’ve reopened the criminal cases, why we brought in mandatory reporting.
‘But I would gently remind them they had 14 years in office. They barely mentioned this issue and where there were inquiries, they failed to act on them. We have done more in the time we’ve been in office than they did in 14 long years.’
Earlier, Sir Keir said: ‘The inquiry is not and will never be watered down. Its scope will not change.
‘It will examine the ethnicity and religion of the offenders, and we will find the right person to chair the inquiry.
‘I can tell the house today, Mr Speaker, that Dame Louise Casey will now support the work of the inquiry, and it will get to the truth. Injustice will have no place to hide.’
Lady Casey, a former victims’ commissioner, previously led a ‘national audit’ of group-based child sexual exploitation that found ‘many examples’ of organisations shying away from discussion of ‘ethnicity or cultural factors’ in such offences ‘for fear of appearing racist’.
Her findings, published in June 2025, prompted Sir Keir to order the creation of the national inquiry.
In an attempt to assuage concerns last night, Ms Mahmood insisted that the inquiry scope ‘will not change’.
Writing in The Times and for GB News, she said the probe ‘is not, and will never be, watered down on my watch’ and would focus on how ‘some of the most vulnerable people in this country’ were abused ‘at the hands of predatory monsters’.
Adding that it was ‘essential that the victims are at the heart of this inquiry’ she expressed regret that the four women had decided to step down from the panel.
Ms Mahmood said: ‘Should they wish to return, the door will always remain open to them. But even if they do not, I owe it to them — and the country — to answer some of the concerns that they have raised.’
Speaking to Times Radio on Wednesday, Ms Goddard said the Home Secretary’s statement was ‘reassuring’.
But she reiterated her call for safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to resign over her comments disputing the allegations that the inquiry was being watered down.
She said: ‘My problem is there is little to no recognition of what Jess Phillips did today by nationally calling me a liar when she knew I was telling the truth.
‘I think that there needs to be an apology, swiftly followed by Jess Phillips’ resignation.’
‘Jess Phillips needs to be removed because I don’t think her conduct … this last 24 hours especially, has been acceptable for the position that she holds,’ Ms Goddard told Channel 4 News.
‘She has publicly accused me of lying when she knows I’m telling the truth.’
Ms Phillips told the Commons yesterday she ‘absolutely regrets’ that survivors had quit their roles but declared: ‘Allegations of intentional delay, lack of interest or widening of the inquiry scope and dilution are false.’
She said opinions varied among victims as to who would be best suited to the role as she faced questions from MPs about the process.
‘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,’ she said.
Ellie-Ann Reynolds also resigned from the victims’ panel on Monday, with two more unnamed members stepping down yesterday.
In a resignation posted on X yesterday, the third survivor to quit said ‘what is happening now feels like a cover-up of a cover-up’.
‘It has created a toxic environment for survivors, filled with pressures that we should not have to deal with,’ she said.
A fourth – Jessica, not her real name, from West Yorkshire – told GB News: ‘When I found out the two potential chairs were a former police officer and a former social worker, I was shocked and I didn’t know how they could be involved.
‘They were both part of a profession that failed all of us.’
Ms Mahmood said the task of appointing a chair had been ‘made harder by the intense – albeit justified – pressure that will be placed on the person who fills it,’ but that ‘we have to get this right and take the time to do so.’
‘I hope and believe the wait will now not be much longer. And once the inquiry begins, the truth will follow,’ she said.
‘There will be no hiding place for those who abused the most vulnerable in our society. Nor will those who ignored victims, and even covered up what occurred, be shielded from the truth.’
