Jess Phillips is a controversial figure in British politics.
Now, as the minister leading the government’s response to grooming gangs, she stands accused of doing the opposite — softening the truth to suit politics.
The government promised an inquiry into grooming gangs: the organised exploitation of vulnerable English girls in towns like Rotherham and Rochdale, where officials ignored years of child abuse for fear of being called “racist”.
This is because the perpetrators were overwhelmingly from a Pakistani background. Instead, Phillips has widened the focus to “child sexual exploitation” in general. She says every victim deserves recognition. Survivors say she’s burying the issue in bureaucratic fog.
A Promise Diluted
Phillips insists that child sexual exploitation “exists in every single part of our country.” But that truism misses the point. The problem isn’t that she’s wrong, it’s that she’s evading the specific question Britain still refuses to face: why did institutions repeatedly protect organised abusers rather than their victims?
By turning a focused inquiry into a catch-all review, Phillips has blurred accountability into abstraction. Survivors who joined the process have quit, describing a “toxic” and “secretive” culture. They believe the government is retreating into comfortable generalities, talking about “all victims” instead of confronting how certain victims were systematically failed.
“We were told this would be about grooming gangs,” one campaigner said. “Now it’s about everything, which means it’s about nothing.”
The Politics of Fear
Phillips is not operating in a vacuum. Labour depends heavily on votes from ethnic minority constituencies, and the subject of grooming gangs, often involving men of Pakistani heritage and White working-class (underage) girls, is radioactive.
“Community leaders” worry that public discussion fuels Islamophobia; survivors fear silence lets abuse fester. Caught between those pressures, Phillips has chosen the safest path: broaden the brief, smooth the edges, and talk about “everyone” rather than someone.
It’s politics at its most defensive, an attempt to please every side that satisfies none. In trying to avoid offence, she’s ended up offending the very people the inquiry was meant to serve.
No government would run a road safety campaign called “Stop Accidents.” It instead targets: drink-driving, speeding, and seatbelt safety.
Why?
Because spreading awareness of such things dramatically reduces accidents. Ones that are avoidable.
You wouldn’t tackle drink-driving by just saying “Let’s make roads safer”. You focus on the specific cause(es).
By broadening the inquiry, Phillips is taking down the warning signs and pretending a single message will fix every danger.
When Caution Becomes Cowardice
For years, councils and police ignored evidence of organised abuse because they feared being branded “racist”. That cowardice destroyed lives. Phillips, who once condemned that silence, now risks repeating it from a ministerial desk.
She says she wants “Action, not another national inquiry that takes years.” But action without clarity is camouflage. Survivors don’t need more warm words; they need an inquiry unafraid to name what went wrong and why.
The truth is simple: grooming gangs are a distinct, organised pattern of exploitation that demands a distinct, organised response.
To put it bluntly, it was a group of men from one ethnic group preying on girls that they saw as racial or ethnic aliens
Pretending otherwise is not sensitivity; it’s surrender, cowardice or just pure malevolence.
Until Jess Phillips has the courage to confront that truth, her inquiry will remain what survivors already fear it is — another political exercise in looking busy, whilst, achieving nothing.
