Farage wrongly claimed that some women involved in the government’s inquiry weren’t grooming gang victims
Five female survivors have called on Reform leader Nigel Farage to issue an apology, after he wrongly suggested they weren’t grooming gang survivors.
Last week, the women wrote to Keir Starmer saying they would only remain involved in the government’s grooming gang inquiry if Jess Phillips remained as Safeguarding Minister.
This came after four women quit the government inquiry, citing concerns that the scope of the investigation was being “watered down”.
Phillips denied these claims. The group of four women called on her to step down.
Farage wrongly claimed that the five women who wanted Phillips to remain in post were victims of other types of child sexual abuse, not grooming gang survivors.
The women said that the Reform leader’s comments were “degrading and humiliating”. They also said the remarks left them feeling “we have to defend ourselves and prove that we are victims again”.
They said: “Nigel Farage should apologise. What he said about us is categorically untrue, saying we shouldn’t be on the panel because we are watering it down and we are survivors of other abuse, not grooming gangs. We are survivors of grooming and grooming gangs.”
At a Reform press conference earlier this week, Farage spoke alongside Ellie Reynolds, a survivor who quit the inquiry.
The Clacton MP said: “Five of the grooming gang victims, those that feel insulted, have withdrawn from the inquiry, but you’ll be told there are five who insist that Jess Phillips stays in place and that the inquiry continues.
“But here’s the truth about the other five. There are two very distinctly different groups of young people who are sexually abused and raped by adults.
“And what has happened with this inquiry is the government has, quite deliberately, from the very start, widened the scope out from those who were victims of Pakistani grooming gangs and brought in other women.
“I’m not demeaning or diminishing in any way the treatment that [they] have been through. I’m just pointing out they were victims, survivors now, of a very different kind of sexual abuse.”
Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch began talking about the grooming gangs in January this year, after Elon Musk falsely claimed that Tommy Robinson was in jail for exposing the gangs.
He was, in fact, in prison for committing contempt of court.
Since then, Reform UK and the Tories have been accused of weaponising the matter of child sexual abuse.
On X, writer and commentator Gerry Hassan wrote: “Too many people including senior politicians are using the grooming gangs scandal to make cheap political points and not caring about victims of horrendous abuse.
“Step forward Nigel Farage who has been asked by female survivors of grooming gangs to apologise.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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