Grooming gang victims have accused the UK government of attempting to manipulate them into broadening a national inquiry to include other forms of sexual abuse, despite Shabana Mahmood\u2019s insistence that the focus will not change.<\/p>\n
They suspect that the government is trying to deflect focus away from Labour-led councils, wishes to impose a government-friendly chair and wants to avoid raising questions over the ethnicity of the perpetrators, many of whom were men of Pakistani descent.<\/p>\n
Their comments come after four abuse survivors resigned from their roles<\/a> on the victims and survivors liaison panel, accusing the Home Office and ministers of sidelining them and seeking to widen the inquiry for political ends.<\/p>\n Mahmood, the home secretary, has been forced to intervene, insisting that the inquiry will leave \u201cno hiding place\u201d for those involved in the scandal.<\/p>\n However, evidence has emerged that shows members of the liaison panel were explicitly asked by officials: \u201cShould the inquiry have an explicit focus on \u2018grooming gangs\u2019 or \u2018group-based CSEA\u2019 [child sexual exploitation and abuse], or take a broader approach?\u201d<\/p>\n Elizabeth, a survivor using a pseudonym who has resigned from the committee, said panel members were surprised to be asked such a question in a written Q&A.<\/p>\n \u201cI voiced my opinion. I said: \u2018Back in June you told the country that we would be having one just on grooming gangs, and now you ask do we want it widening? No, we don\u2019t, we want it on grooming gangs,\u2019\u201d she told Radio 4\u2019s Today programme.<\/p>\n Asked whether she felt satisfied with the home secretary\u2019s assertion that the inquiry would explicitly examine the ethnicity and religion of offenders, Elizabeth said: \u201cNo, I\u2019m not, because we hear this all the time. We heard it in June. We hear it all the time.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, people all want to do the best for grooming gang survivors and their families when they need a vote or they need to look good.\u201d<\/p>\n Fiona Goddard<\/a>, who was abused by a grooming gang from the age of 14, said she had text messages that proved that the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, was directly aware of concerns about the risk of broadening the inquiry and warned that victims were \u201cnot being believed all over again\u201d.<\/p>\n In an article for the Times<\/a>, Mahmood acknowledged frustrations about the pace of progress towards launching the inquiry, which was announced by Keir Starmer in June and is yet to appoint a chair.<\/p>\n But she insisted the inquiry \u201cis not, and will never be, watered down on my watch\u201d and would focus on how \u201csome of the most vulnerable people in this country\u201d were abused \u201cat the hands of predatory monsters\u201d.<\/p>\n She said the inquiry would be \u201crobust and rigorous,\u201d with the power to compel witnesses, and would examine the ethnicity and religion of the offenders.<\/p>\n \u201cIn time, we came to know this as the \u2018grooming gangs\u2019 scandal, though I have never thought the name matched the scale of the evil. We must call them what they were: evil child rapists,\u201d Mahmood said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is essential that the victims themselves are at the heart of this inquiry. It was with a heavy heart, in recent days, I learned that some members have decided to step away from the group. Should they wish to return, the door will always remain open to them. But even if they do not, I owe it to them \u2013 and the country \u2013 to answer some of the concerns that they have raised.\u201d<\/p>\n In her resignation letter on Monday, Goddard said the process so far had involved \u201csecretive conduct\u201d with instances of \u201ccondescending and controlling language\u201d used towards survivors.<\/p>\n She later accused Phillips of lying for disputing allegations that the inquiry was being watered down and called on her to stand down from her position.<\/p>\n