'PROOF STARMER DOES NOT CARE' ABOUT VICTIMS OF RAPE

Grooming gang survivor Ellie Reynolds says her PM meeting request has been ignored

- BY ZAK GARNER-PURKIS Investigations Editor

Rape gangs survivor Ellie Reynolds has accused PM Sir Keir of not responding to her plea for a meeting

KEIR Starmer “does not care” about the victims of grooming gangs and has ignored their concerns over a “corrupt” inquiry process, survivors have claimed.

Three members of the investigation’s victims and survivors liaison panel resigned last year, branding the national inquiry “toxic...controlling” and “stage-managed”.

Now survivor Ellie Reynolds has torn into the PM for breaking their trust and allegedly ignoring their claims of “corruption”, despite them having to recall the horrors of being raped, kidnapped and beaten.

She said: “We've asked to meet with Keir Starmer and have not had a response. That basically just proves that he’s not bothered. He doesn’t care.”

Ellie, 25, went on: “I didn’t really have high hopes for the inquiry to begin with, and I'm quite a positive person. Maybe people like me and Fiona [Goddard, another survivor] were put on that panel for a reason - to see how corrupt it was and expose it before it was too late.

"The problem we've got is how high up does [the corruption] actually go? They not only have to get the public's trust back, but also the survivors' trust." The resignations of Ellie, Fiona and a third survivor known as Elizabeth followed concerns that the inquiry would be "watered down", downplaying racial and religious motivations behind their abuse.

Ellie was groomed from 13 - her abusers trafficked her to properties and restaurants in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, where she was drugged, imprisoned and gang raped.

Ellie had to revisit her trauma alone via a video link and comply with strict conditions that she felt limited her ability to seek help during the tough inquiry process. She quit in autumn amid claims of a "cover-up" and a "toxic environment" for survivors.