Ex-children’s commissioner Anne Longfield to chair grooming gangs inquiry | Grooming gangs inquiry

Former children’s commissioner and Labor member Anne Longfield will chair the national grooming gangs inquiry.

His appointment will be announced by home affairs minister Shabana Mahmood, following a long-delayed call after some victims left the inquiry’s advisory panel over disagreements over the presidential appointment.

Louise Casey, who has been asked by the Prime Minister to help rebuild confidence in the inquiry, said in a letter to survivors helping the inquiry that she hoped the president would have the qualifications they were looking for.

Casey, who has conducted a nationwide audit of grooming gangs that recommends a full investigation, told survivors in his letter that he hoped they would have the opportunity to meet the president and the panel this week and promised to remain involved in the investigation.

Earlier this year, a group of women left the inquiry’s victim contact panel, accusing the government of trying to expand its remit to consider other forms of child sexual abuse.

Some called for the resignation of conservation minister Jess Phillips, but some other women on the panel also later wrote to defend Phillips.