Sir Keir Starmer has been told to “get off his backside” in a furious tirade by a leading anti-abuse campaigner about the state of the grooming gangs inquiry.

Speaking to GB News, CEO of Freedom from Abuse Marilyn Hawes declared that survivors and campaigners have “had enough” of the way the Labour Government has handled the matter.

As calls mount for Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips to resign, five grooming gang survivors have withdrawn from the inquiry.

One survivor told GB News that Mrs Phillips has behaved in a “disgusting and embarrassing way” towards both the inquiry and survivors during the process.

Weighing in on the Government’s handling of the inquiry, Ms Hawes told GB News: “Jess Phillips should resign, because if you go right back to the start of this, when it was a question of are we going to have it or aren’t we going to have it, nobody wanted to have this inquiry that was so desperate.

“It was clearly obvious across police and social workers and council mayors and goodness knows what else, had been an almighty cover up in the so-called protection of racial harmony.”

She added: “Meanwhile, these now adults but then children were turning up at police stations, bruised, bleeding, crying, being told that they were basically child prostitutes, they weren’t believed.

“So if you look in the mind and walk for five seconds in the shoes of a victim, why are they going to trust the Government, because it is the Government that covered it up.”

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• Kemi Badenoch lambasts ‘worst ever’ Jess Phillips as grooming gang survivors quit inquiry en masse
• Grooming gangs survivor tears into ‘disgusting’ Jess Phillips amid inquiry chaos
• Jim Gamble launches fiery tirade after pulling out of grooming gangs inquiry

Criticising Sir Keir’s role in handling the inquiry, Ms Hawes fumed: “I think it’s a great shame that Jim Gamble stepped down, but he had the integrity and thought, ‘well, I only want to do it if I’ve got the joint feeling of the victims’.

“Has Starmer got off his backside and gone to ask them who would they choose or who would they like?” I’ll do it, if they don’t find anyone else I can do it.”

Calling on former Detective Constable with the Greater Manchester Police Maggie Oliver to head up the inquiry, she added: “I’d happily do it with Maggie Oliver. Why haven’t they chosen Maggie Oliver? She knows the truth, she will know what stones to turn over, what carpets to look under. Maggie Oliver, they would trust.”

Demanding that the Prime Minister has a “reality check” in regards to the inquiry, Ms Hawes raged: “This isn’t about Starmer, whether he thinks that Jess Phillips is okay, we’ve heard this before, haven’t we? We had so much hope and everything in Mandelson and look where that ended up.

“It’s not about him, he hasn’t been raped as a little boy, has he? Stand in their shoes and have some empathy. I’m right on side with them because I deal with victims every day of my life, and people just disregard them. And if you want to have these people come out the other side, then everyone without fear or favour has to be named, shamed, put in a court and banged up, even if you had to build another prison.

“We’ve had enough of this and it’s it. Starmer needs to have a reality check on what comes out of his mouth, quite frankly.”

Concluding that Ms Phillips “has to go”, Ms Hawes stated: “You’ve got to eradicate it, you’ve got to deport people and you’ve got to get a spine. What has Jess Phillips achieved?

“Women are still getting raped all over the place, even more than ever. So what difference has she made? She has to go, she’s not effective.”