Casey ready to ‘lean in’ over grooming inquiry

THE woman who called for the national inquiry into grooming gangs says she is “personally committed” to ensuring it goes ahead, amid turmoil surrounding the probe.

- DANIEL HOLLAND Local Democracy Reporter

Four abuse survivors resigned from the inquiry’s victims’ liaison panel this week and have demanded that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips resign, though others have since said they will only remain involved if she stays in post, while two candidates identified to lead the inquiry have pulled out.

Following concerns about the remit of the inquiry potentially being widened beyond grooming gangs, Sir Keir Starmer insisted on Wednesday that it “will never be watered down” and announced that Baroness Louise Casey was being drafted in to support its work.

Baroness Casey, who has been in Newcastle this week as part of her work leading the Independent Commission into Adult Social Care, previously led a national audit of group-based child sexual exploitation which found that authorities had “shied away” from discussing the ethnicity of perpetrators or cultural factors for “fear of appearing racist”.