Kemi Badenoch has come out swinging at Jess Phillips after four grooming gangs survivors quit the national inquiry panel earlier this week.
Dubbing the Labour MP the “worst Safeguarding Minister ever”, the Conservative leader suggested that the ordeal would be improved by someone “serious” in the job.
Earlier this week, the Birmingham Yardley MP faced numerous calls to resign after four survivors of historic child abuse stepped away from their roles in the Government inquiry.
One of the survivors, Fiona Goddard, quit on Monday, citing “condescending and controlling language used towards survivors”.
Mrs Badenoch called Jess Phillips the “worst Safeguarding Minister ever”
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GB NEWS
She, alongside three other survivors, expressed concern that the inquiry was being “watered-down” by officials, a claim denied by Sir Keir Starmer and his top officials.
As a result, concerns over political interference and treatment of survivors were raised, leading to calls for Mrs Phillips to resign from her role.
Asking the leader if there might be a concern at all that if the Minister resigns, the whole inquiry could collapse, Mrs Badenoch firmly refuted the claim.
“No, not at all,” Mrs Badenoch responded curtly.
“She is the worst Safeguarding Minister we have ever had. And actually things will be better when we have someone serious doing the job.”
“This has been a national scandal. It needs a lot of work. The fact that four of the victims have lost confidence in the Government is a serious issue.”
The Tory leader added that a judge ought to be leading the national inquiry, adding: “We need people whose hands are clean, who can look at the whole issue from top to bottom.
“Leave no stone unturned and get justice for all the victims and survivors.”
But GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope pointed out that in her role as Women and Equalities Minister from 2022 to 2024, Mrs Badenoch held power to “sort out this issue once and for all”.
Mrs Badenoch responded: “We had an inquiry, and the inquiry had started long before I had become a minister.
She added: “It was ongoing. And that was supposed to be the thing that solved the problem. And when the inquiry reported, we saw that it hadn’t done enough.
“So we set up a task force, a grooming gang task force that found about 500 perpetrators. And since we’ve left Government, I think another 300. So we did do something,” she insisted.
Mrs Badenoch held power to ‘sort out this issue once and for all’ as Equalities Minister from 2022 to 2024
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GB NEWS
“And people talking about us not doing anything or trying to distract from the fact that we have a Labour Government that don’t want you to look into an issue which involves many, many Labour councils.”
One of the most prevalent areas where the extent of the impact of grooming gangs has been exposed is Rochdale, in Greater Manchester.
Since the national scandal came to light, however, the Labour Government resisted calls for a national inquiry on three occasions until they gave in.
“They are afraid of what will be found and so they are dragging their feet,” Mrs Badenoch said. “They didn’t even want to have this inquiry. We’re the ones who forced them to do it.”
