Labour slapped with 'uncomfortable truth' after survivor condemns 'degrading' treatment

Recalling the way in which the panel was conducted, Ms Reynolds said: "We almost felt uncomfortable vocalising the ethnicity of these men.

"Pretty much when we were in that inquiry, we were stripped of our voices."

Speaking to Martin Daubney, Maggie Oliver, armed with more than 30 years of experience in the police force, speaking with survivors, she said: [The cases] are all equally abhorrent for the victim.

"But by watering it down and trying to conflate everything into one inquiry, the victims of these grooming gangs who have already been silenced for decades, will once again find their voices buried beneath all the other forms of abuse."

"And that is what they are fighting for."

She added that the criminal justice system is "unfit for purpose", adding: "They are all failed when they are not heard."

She continued: "This kind of abuse has been buried under decades of silence, and it's the only kind of abuse, Martin, that as a serving police officer, I saw chief constables, those at the top of Government, senior social workers bury it beneath the carpet because it was too uncomfortable a truth to uncover.

"To this day, they still do not record the ethnicity, the culture of every sexual abuser."

In her speech, Ms Reynolds added that the inquiry was "rigged from the start" and made reference to former police officer Jim Gamble and former social worker Annie Hudson, who were previously announced as candidates to chair the inquiry.

The survivor concluded her speech by saying the inquiry was "corrupt".

Ms Oliver's words on the People's Channel echo those of grooming gang victim Carly Helliwell, who wrote to Sir Keir Starmer, warning that he risks "silencing and failing us again".

She has urged Sir Keir Starmer to ensure that Jess Phillips will no longer be involved in the inquiry after she suggested that victims had lied about the widening scope.

Calls for the Safeguarding Minister to stand down have been gradually mounting since the four survivors resigned from the panel of victims and survivors.

At the same press conference at which Ms Reynolds delivered her damning verdict on Labour's handling of the grooming gangs scandal, Mr Farage made an announcement of his own.

Declaring that it was time for Parliament to "step up" and intervene in the grooming gang scandal, the party's chief said he would be speaking to Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and planned to write to the Home Affairs Select Committee about Parliament using its "extraordinary powers" to investigate the grooming gangs scandal.

Mr Farage said: "I am saying, here is the most enormous opportunity for Parliament, and indeed for this Government, to restore some public trust in the institution and those that currently inhabit it on an issue that has been gnawing away at our public consciences for well over a decade."

He continued: "The advantages of this - the first one is it can be done incredibly quickly.

"The second of this, is it will take place in what we still know as the mother of Parliaments and perhaps re-establish some trust in the institution and it will happen in the full glare of the media and it won't take years to complete."

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