Jess Phillips has betrayed grooming gang survivors with Labour's toxic whitewash

I keep hearing how much Jess Phillips has done for women. OK, so answers on a postcard please - exactly what has she done? In Opposition she talked loud and hard about fighting for women's rights. But talking about making life better for women isn't actually doing it. But with this grooming gangs inquiry she finally had the chance to stop talking and DO something for abused and exploited women - to right the wrongs of decades of rape and torture by Pakistani grooming gangs and get justice for the survivors. And what does she do? She betrays them and calls them liars. And let's not forget Phillips actually voted against having a national inquiry in the first place. She tried to stop the victims being heard.

Now five of those survivors have walked out of the inquiry claiming Phillips and others wanted to broaden its remit to include all forms of sexual exploitation thus playing down the fact it was Pakistani rape gangs who'd perpetrated the abuse. And they did that knowing the ethnicity of those rapists was a vital element in why the abuse was ignored by the establishment for decades. The cops, social services, councillors and politicians - all terrified of being branded racist - turned a blind eye to the fact that the lives of white vulnerable white girls were being wrecked by Pakistani Muslim men who saw them as trash.

Which is why Jess' Slogan "Believe Women" now sticks in the craw because she might well want to believe some women - just not the white working class ones that were raped by Pakistani Muslims.

And why? I'm guessing it's because she won her Birmingham Yardley seat - an area that's predominantly Muslim - by just 700 votes and so doesn't want to upset constituents for fear they'll boot her out.

I want to believe that isn't true but I fear now Phillip's dilemma is she's trying to placate her Muslim constituents while claiming to be protecting women and it's her desperation to keep her seat that's winning.

Her weasel behaviour and that of the whole Labour party shows nothing has changed in the years since the scandals of Rochdale and Rotherham. Back then the Establishment - and particularly the Labour party - didn't give a stuff about protecting those abused women, just the finer feelings of Pakistani Muslims. Fifteen years on it's the same story.

Don't forget Starmer never wanted this inquiry and said people demanding it had jumped on the Far Right Bandwagon.

So when he was finally forced into one the dye was set to ensure it did nothing that would upset the Muslim community. Just like back then.

The two people shortlisted to chair it were a former police chief and a social services boss both from institutions that were complicit in covering up the scandals.

Then leaked papers, which backed up the survivors' claims, suggested the inquiry wanted to broaden its remit to look at all forms of sexual exploitation thus playing down the Pakistani Rape gang element which is what the entire bloody inquiry is supposed to be about.

Of course Starmer and his shabby Government have ignored the victims' distress at what's happening and circled their wagons around Phillips insisting there's no-one better for the job. This is despite the fact the victims who've quit saying they won't return as long as she's involved. But Labour still isn't listening to them.

The victims (rightly) believe this inquiry to be a toxic, politically motivated cover-up of a cover-up. And it's fast becoming clear their participation in it was just a PR exercise to make it look like the Government was taking them seriously.

So having wasted four months setting this up it's now going to be many more months until a chair person can be found (it should be an independent judge if there are any of those left) And then years until it comes to a conclusion which we already know will be a whitewash.

And let's face it, if the bozos running this can't even find a chair person - there isn't a hope in Hell of them finding justice for these women who yet again are being let down, humiliated and ignored.