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A Rochdale grooming survivor has branded Sir Keir Starmer's account of her case "vile" and accused him of lying to help his political career.

Survivor Ruby, not her real name, was raped five days a week from the age of 12 to 15 by a Pakistani gang, who forced her to get "blackout drunk" and threatened her with a gun when she said no.

Impregnated aged 13 by gang member Adil Khan, Ruby, who has special needs, had her aborted foetus taken and frozen by Greater Manchester Police without her knowledge or consent.

She was appalled to learn that when Sir Keir's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) belatedly took action, they only pursued conspiracy charges against her chief abuser Khan, who was released after just three years.

She branded Sir Keir's repeated use of his role as director of public prosecutions at the CPS during the Rochdale case to bolster his reputation "disgusting".

"It's absolutely vile," she told the Express. "How can he stand there and say he did a good job? They had DNA, concrete evidence, and still didn't get [the offender] charged with rape."

The survivor added that the British public could have "no way" of trusting the Prime Minister.

Ruby is joined by police whistleblower and ex-Detective Constable Maggie Oliver in calling for the Prime Minister to step away from any involvement in the upcoming national inquiry into grooming gangs, citing a conflict of interest in how the CPS treated victims at the time of the offending.

Ms Oliver, who resigned as a detective over the police's handling of the Rochdale case, told the Express that Sir Keir's CPS had made "horrific" decisions that must not be replicated.

She highlighted the "betrayal" of Amber, a key witness whom the former detective was instructed to befriend as police sought to put the Pakistani rape gang behind bars.

Confirmed as a victim by senior members of the CPS, the teenager provided hours of interviews to Oliver detailing the sickening sexual abuse she and other children had suffered.

However, for "tactical reasons", the CPS decided to portray the girl as a teenage pimp who was procuring children on behalf of the gang. Amber was not informed that she would be named in court and was unable to defend herself against these allegations at any stage.

"That tactic against a vulnerable victim of horrendous abuse was inhumane, unlawful and should never be used," Oliver said.

"The only way to get Amber's evidence into court was to add her to the indictment as one of the gang of paedophiles.

"But they didn't arrest Amber, they never cautioned her, she didn't even know that she was being portrayed in that trial as an older madame who was procuring children for the gang and it was a complete lie."

In the aftermath of the trial, Amber faced death threats and had her address shared on social media in posts that accused her of being a "paedo". Oliver also claims social services attempted to take the teenage victim's infant child as a result of her being named on the Rochdale grooming gangs indictment.

The majority of Ruby and Oliver's claims are backed up by publicly available sources.

The most damming is an independent review commissioned in 2017 by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, which found the CPS's actions towards Amber showed an unacceptable lack of concern for the impact on a vulnerable survivor.

The review said that Sir Keir's organisation had either ignored or not considered the risk to the girl's personal safety and was guilty of "deplorable further abuse of a CSE survivor". In 2022, Amber received a full apology from Greater Manchester Police, who officially recognised her as a victim.

Oliver added that, given his claims of personal involvement in the Rochdale case, Sir Keir should recuse himself from any decisions on the grooming gangs inquiry.

"The decisions made, in my opinion, are so horrific that he is compromised," she added. "You know, if he's trying to say that this was the pinnacle prosecution success, I think we've got exactly the opposite here and there must be a conflict in wanting to conceal some of those decisions."

Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp labelled Sir Keir's conduct a "disgrace".

He added: "Perhaps that explains why he resisted an inquiry for so long. Perhaps it's also why the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party said it was a "dog whistle" to even raise the rape gang sandal.

"Keir Starmer must now publicly apologise and he must recuse himself from any decision-making on the Rape Gang Inquiry."

And Reform home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf agreed that the only response to the Express's investigation from the Prime Minister was immediate resignation.

"This national disgrace happened on Starmer's watch. The British public cannot trust him to lead the country, and he should not be anywhere near power," he added.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: "As director of public prosecutions, the Prime Minister secured the first grooming gang prosecutions more than a decade ago, and now his Government is doing more than any before it to root out this vile crime.

"Survivors and victims are at the heart of the inquiry into grooming gangs chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield, and we will leave no stone unturned to get them justice."

A CPS spokesperson added: "We recognise that in the past, victims of child sexual exploitation may have not always had positive experiences during the prosecutorial process.

"The decisions taken in non-recent cases reflected the law, understanding and prosecutorial practice at the time, but in recent years we have made significant investment in how we prosecute these complex cases.

"Our Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit has prosecutors specially trained to tackle these awful crimes and are focused on placing victims at the centre of decisionmaking, and ensure our prosecutors are trained to understand exploitation, coercion and trauma."