Starmer stands by Phillips as survivor threatens to sue

Sir Keir Starmer is standing by Jess Phillips, his embattled safeguarding minister, despite one of the women who quit their role on the national grooming gangs inquiry threatening to sue her.

- DAVID MADDOX

Lawyers acting on behalf of Fiona Goddard on Friday issued the warning in a letter to Ms Phillips about comments she made about their client and two other victims who quit a panel on the grooming gang inquiry.

The group has already called for Ms Phillips to resign, claiming she had accused them of lying in a letter to the Commons Home Affairs Committee chair Dame Karen Bradley in which she denied the government was “seeking to dilute the focus of the inquiry”.

Ms Goddard's solicitors, Switalskis, said the suggestion of watering down was “patently not untrue” and Ms Phillips’s letter had been “defamatory” as it suggested their client had been untruthful.

They also referred to a text message conversation in which Ms Goddard raised concerns with Ms Phillips about an item on an agenda for a meeting with survivors that asked whether the inquiry should take a “broader approach” than an “explicit focus on ‘grooming gangs”.