Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Tuesday, the 21st of October, a minister made a heated defence of the process

to set up the statutory inquiry into child grooming gangs in England and Wales.

The safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, has made the protection of women and girls the load star of her career.

So criticism of the way the inquiry into grooming gangs is being set up in England and Wales clearly got under her skin.

Misinformation undermines this process.

Allegations of intentional delay, lack of interest or widening of the inquiry scope and dilution are false.

The inquiry set up process is being handled by an independent charity.

But Jess Phillips had been called to the Commons because two, now three victims,

had quit the inquiry panel, complaining of censorship and questioning whether they were

really being heard. One of the candidates to chair the inquiry has also decided to withdraw.

The Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has claimed that official queasiness about addressing

the ethnicity of the perpetrators had left girls at risk.

This scandal arose because young, mainly white girls were systematically gang raped, and this

was covered up by those in authority because the perpetrators were mainly of Pakistani origin.

Chris Philp said the Prime Minister had been dragged reluctantly into ordering the inquiry

and only after accusing campaigners of jumping on a far-right bandwagon.

One of the women who resigned from the inquiry victims panel is Fiona Goddard.

Fiona Goddard resigned from the panel saying this,

the secretive conduct and conditions imposed on survivors by the government

has led to a toxic and fearful environment

with a high risk of people being silenced all over again.

...