Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips is under pressure to quit.

Grooming gangs survivors have demanded that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips resign before they will take part in the inquiry into the scandal.

The four women, who quit their roles in the probe this week, say Phillips is “unfit” to continue in her role and must leave government.

In a letter to home secretary Shabana Mahmood, published on X, they accused the minister of “betrayal” after she dismissed their criticisms of how the grooming gangs inquiry is being run.

Their concerns centre around fears that the scope of the inquiry may be broadened out to investigate wider sexual abuse and not just grooming gangs.

Their letter said: “We raised legitimate concerns about the inquiry’s direction based on our direct experiences in the process that you called ‘justified’ and in response your safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, called our accounts ‘untrue’.

“Evidence has since proven we were telling the truth. Being publicly contradicted and dismissed by a government minister when........

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