Grooming gang victim calls for Jess Phillips to be sacked after quitting inquiry panel
Fiona Goddard said Jess Phillips has accused her of lying
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Grooming gang victim Fiona Goddard has called for Jess Phillips to be sacked from her role as Safeguarding Minister.
She said the Government needs to rethink its approach and that Mrs Phillips' conduct in the last 24 hours has not been acceptable.
She told Channel 4: "I think she needs to step down because she's publicly accused a grooming gang survivor who, throughout my whole life, has been accused of lying over and over again - that is part of the whole scandal.
"She has publicly accused me of lying when she knows I'm telling the truth."
Ms Goddard explained that she confronted Mrs Phillips about an email discussing the scope of the inquiry, questioning whether it could be widened.
She said: "I also posted Jess's reply so just cannot say she was not aware of it. Jess knew. She knew the question was being asked. She knew that the people would be consulted on the scope being expanded.
"And I think for her to call me a liar when she knows I'm not lying is outright outrageous.
"At the end of the day, she's the women and children safeguarding minister, and then she has publicly accused a victim of lying when she knows that I'm not."
Fiona Goddard has called on Jess Phillips to resign
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Ms Goddard said she has "completely" lost faith in Mrs Phillips.
She continued: "There's also information [that has] come to light that the person that she put in charge of liaising with the victims, this independent charity also made public statements in newspaper articles and blogs to say that the grooming gangs were basically a racist agenda.
"She said things contrary to what Baroness Casey's findings were and what lived experiences as survivors were, and this person's been put [on the] frontline to engage with survivors."
Ms Goddard believes the Government "really needs to rethink things" with Mrs Phillip's role.
"I think the victim liaison safeguarding representative from the charity needs to be removed.
"I think Jess Phillips needs to be removed because I don't think her conduct during this, this last 24 hours, especially, has been acceptable for the position that she holds," Ms Goddard said.
Ms Goddard quit alongside Ellie Reynolds from the survivors liaison panel yesterday and was joined by Elizabeth Harper today.
Elizabeth, not her real name, told The People's Channel she was leaving the panel because she feared there was a lack of "genuine understanding of the grooming gangs scandal".
The Government has been called to remove Mrs Phillips from her position
| PAMs Goddard also hit out at the London Mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, saying he is "absolutely fooling himself" to suggest that he has no knowledge of the scale of the grooming gangs issue in London.
Speaking to GB News, she said: "London most definitely has a grooming gang issue.
"The grooming gangs work through the same networks that gun trafficking and drug trafficking work through, which London is a central position.
"So is Bradford. That's why Bradford has such a bad issue with it."
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