❓WHAT HAPPENED: Members of the victims’ panel are resigning from the British government’s official inquiry into the Muslim grooming gangs scandal, citing conflicts of interest among proposed inquiry leaders.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Victims Fiona Goddard, Ellie-Ann Reynolds, and a third survivor using the pseudonym Elizabeth, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and other government officials.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Resignations occurred on October 20 and October 21, the inquiry is to take place in the United Kingdom.
💬KEY QUOTE: “This is a disturbing conflict of interest, and I fear the lack of trust in services from years of failings and corruption will have a negative impact in survivor engagement with this inquiry,” Fiona Goddard said of former police and social work leaders being considered to lead the inquiry, despite their institutions being heavily implicated in the grooming gangs cover-up.
🎯IMPACT: Accusations of government sabotage of the inquiry are threatening its credibility and undermining the public trust.
Britain’s official inquiry into Muslim grooming gangs abuse and the authorities failure to properly investigate it is under growing pressure after three survivors resigned from its victims’ panel, raising concerns about conflicts of interest, transparency, and a potential watering down of the investigation’s focus.
Fiona Goddard, a survivor of grooming gang abuse, stepped down on Monday after discovering that a former police officer and a social worker, representing institutions heavily involved in covering up the abuse, were being considered to lead the inquiry. “This is a disturbing conflict of interest, and I fear the lack of trust in services from years of failings and corruption will have a negative impact in survivor engagement with this inquiry,” she wrote in her resignation letter. Goddard argued that the inquiry should meet or exceed the standards of a criminal trial, where such conflicts would be disqualifying.
Ellie-Ann Reynolds, another survivor, also resigned, accusing the government of limiting the voices of victims. “You isolated us by discouraging contact with each other and with our support networks. You dictated what we could say publicly, edited our words, and made it clear that speaking openly would jeopardise our place on the panel,” she said.
A third survivor resigned on Tuesday, writing in a statement posted to X, “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.”
The inquiry, originally designed to focus on the grooming and abuse of predominantly white working-class girls by mostly Pakistani Muslim men, has been criticised for broadening its scope to include other forms of child sexual exploitation. Goddard warned that this shift risks weakening the inquiry’s impact. “Expanding the scope of this inquiry risks it being watered down and once again, failing to get to the truth,” she stated.
The British police watchdog admitted in September that senior officers in South Yorkshire failed to act on evidence of grooming gang activity, allowing abuse to continue unchecked. Earlier this year, an official review found that investigators often deliberately ignored or failed to record the ethnicity of offenders, making it harder to detect or prove demographic patterns of abuse.
More recently, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has faced accusations of covering up data related to Muslim grooming gangs, with critics alleging political concerns over so-called community relations influenced the lack of transparency. This was the case in other grooming gang hotspots, with police afraid they would be accused of racism if they went after Pakistani Muslims targeting white girls, or that public knowledge of the crimes would encourage racism.
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