Survivors Split Over National Inquiry Leadership Row

Baroness Louise Casey’s proposed statutory national inquiry into organised child sexual exploitation has been thrown into disarray as survivors split over remit, leadership and trust. Four members of the survivors’ advisory panel resigned, citing a toxic, secretive environment, confidentiality demands that silenced them, and fears the inquiry will be widened in ways that dilute focus and avoid probing ethnicity. The resigning survivors accused Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips of calling some of their claims “untrue” and demanded her resignation, while a separate group of five survivors wrote to the prime minister saying they will remain only if Phillips stays and the remit can include other forms of child sexual exploitation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has backed Phillips, pledged the inquiry’s scope will not be watered down and said a chair will be found, even as two frontrunners for the chair role withdrew amid the row. Campaigners and commentators warn the government’s handling risks secrecy, delay and avoidance of difficult questions about institutional failings and the role of culture and ethnicity, threatening survivors’ trust and the inquiry’s credibility.