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WATCH: Anti-abuse campaigner calls for Maggie Oliver to lead grooming gangs inquiry
Oct 23, 2025
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.FULL STORY HERE.
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Speaking at Peacehaven Mosque, the Prime Minister insisted the investigation will go wherever it needs to go
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Joining me now is CEO of Freedom From Abuse, Marilyn Hawes. Marilyn, always a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you for joining me
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Thank you. This is a never-ending problem, a political nightmare, isn't it
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And I feel desperately sorry for the victims because they are caught yet again in the middle of a political thunderstorm
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Of course, over the last few days alone, we have seen five now, five victims quit the inquiry
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Four of them announced a huge, well, I guess a raft of demands of the inquiry last night
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One of them being whether that Jess Phillips should resign if they want them to come back onto the inquiry
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What do you think? Should Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, resign from the inquiry
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Well, yes, she should, 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
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nobody wanted to have this inquiry that was so desperate. It was clearly obvious across police and social workers and council
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mayors and goodness knows what else, there had been an almighty cover-up in the so-called protection of racial harmony
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Well, you know, meanwhile, these now adults but then children were turning up at police stations, bruised, bleeding, crying
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being told that they were basically child prostitutes, they weren't believed, they shouldn't be out on the streets at night
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et cetera, et cetera. So if you look in their 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 up
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Now, Jess Phillips at the start, she wouldn't come out and say
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I'm sorry, but this has to go ahead. So you've got to think these kids were raped on an industrial scale
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They were drugged. They were told this was a life choice. Now, these victims are now going to be completely re-traumatised
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even if everything was going clear to plan. They would be, oh, my gosh, I'm going to have to tell it all over again
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So I think it's a great shame Jim Gamble stepped down, but he had the integrity and thought, well, I only want to do it
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if I've got the joint feeling of the victims. Well, that in itself is difficult because everyone's got their own sensitivities
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Everyone's got their own story. Some people will be in different places with their trauma or their healing
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Some may be more resilient. You know, has Starmer got off his backside and gone to ask them
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who would they choose? Who would they like? I'll do it. They don't find anyone else
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I can do it. I'd be happy to do it with Maggie Oliver. Why haven't they chosen Maggie Oliver
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Now, there's the thing, because she knows the truth. She will know what stones to turn over, what carpets to look under
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Maggie Oliver, they would trust. But she doesn't come up on the list, does she
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Oh, no, no. Why don't they use child abuse lawyers or barristers
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Why don't they use those, yeah? Well, they don't because the lawyers have said, haven't they
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and some of the judges, oh, well, we might be tainted by this. Well I don think that ethical If you are in the area of justice then you should be putting your neck on the line And this isn about Starmer whether he thinks that Jess Phillips is OK
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We've heard this before, haven't we? Or we had so much hope and everything in Mandelstown
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Look where that ended up. You know, it's not about him. He hasn't been raped as a little boy, has he
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Stand in their shoes and have some empathy. And I'm right on side with them because I deal with victims every day of my life
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and people just disregard them. And if you want this to have
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and these people to come out the other side, then everyone without fear or favour
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has to be named, shamed, put in a court and banged up, even if you had to build another prison
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We've had enough of this. And Starmer needs to have a reality check
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on what comes out of his mouth, quite frankly. And Marilyn, you know, there's many people saying
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that Labour is not capable of marking its own homework. And of course, some victims, not all
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but some victims are saying that actually because of the Labour Party's time in office
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during where they would argue the scandal was at its height, there are too many links inside the Labour Party for this inquiry to go smoothly
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Of course, the Labour Party are denying that. Shabana Mahmood is denying that. The Prime Minister is saying this will go wherever it needs to
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Jess Phillips is saying this will go wherever it needs to. Do you think victims are feeling reassured that this inquiry is going to go
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into all the nooks and grannies that it needs to? No, absolutely not, until they have a sweep clean. I mean, look at, I mean, let's go back
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to Jimmy Savile, shall we? I mean, Starmer ignored a lot of those cases, a lot of those
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victims and reports that came in when he was in charge of Crown prosecution. Why are these
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women going to believe that I wouldn I wouldn trust any of them For me the only person I would honestly trust would be Maggie Oliver And I be very happy to get involved myself
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because, I mean, she knows the truth. I know the truth. I've known for 25 years that it's
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been these Asian gangs and Muslim gangs. You've got to eradicate it. You've got to deport
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people you've got to get a spine and and where's the human rights lawyers for us may i ask you
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where and jess phillips goes on about oh she's the safeguard of violence against women and girls
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lots of words lots of verbal stuff comes out of her mouth i can't honestly say that in her time
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as she's been fighting this for violence against women and girls but also what about violence
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against men i always think they're they're ignored but you know what what has she actually achieved
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Women are still getting raped all over the place, even more than ever. So what difference has she made
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She has to get them. She's not effective. I would love to see you and Maggie Oliver do the inquiry
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I think that would be absolutely fantastic. I think Maggie Oliver is an absolutely exceptional woman
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I can't believe she hasn't had a peerage or some sort of knighthood yet. She won't, Alex
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And it's yourself as well, Marilyn. She won't have it. She won't. I won't be asked
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She won't be asked because... Well, I hope one day you will be. I hold out hope, Marilyn, you will be, and I will do my best to help a campaign for that to happen
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I'm sure you will get to that. It will be very well said when you do
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We will, you know, gloves up, I'm telling you. Well, you just keep on, Marilyn, you just keep on fighting the good fight
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And listen, come back on the show as soon as you can, please. CEO of Freedom From Abuse there, Marilyn Hawes, as brilliant as ever. Thank you
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