Musk’s ‘disinformation’ endangering me, says Phillips

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told BBC’s Newsnight that “disinformation” spread by Elon Musk was “endangering” her but that it was “nothing” compared to the experiences of victims of abuse.

The tech billionaire and adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump labelled Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and said she should be jailed.

Asked if the threat to her own safety had gone up since his social media posts and whether protections were in place, Phillips replied “yes”.

She said the encounter had been “very, very, very tiring” but that she was “resigned to the lot in life that you get as a woman who fights violence against women and girls”.

She added: “I’m no unknown to people who don’t recognize what they’re talking about trying to silence women like me.”

The row between Mr Musk and the UK government concerns cases of groups of men – mainly of Pakistani descent – being convicted for sexually abusing and raping predominantly white girls around the UK.

Mr Musk’s intervention came in response to Phillips rejecting a request for the government to navigator a community inquiry into kid sexual exploitation in Oldham – which sparked calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Phillips selection was taken in October but first reported by GB information at the commence of the year, and then picked up by Mr Musk on his social media platform X.

Phillips defended the government’s selection not to hold a national inquiry, arguing that local inquiries, such as one held in Telford, were more effective at leading to transformation.

“What I saw happen in Telford is the exact opposite of what I have seen happen because of the national specialist inquiry for the last two years since it came out – I saw transformation happen,” she said.

She said she would be getting council leaders together to discover the lessons from Telford.

“When people declare it’s the council marking their own homework, it isn’t.

“It is an independent inquiry led locally and it’s the only model I’ve seen work, and I’ve worked in this field for 15 years.”

The Independent Inquiry into kid Sexual Abuse, which lasted seven years and reported in 2022, made 20 recommendations – however, none has yet been implemented.

Speaking to the Today programme earlier Prof Alexis Jay, who led the inquiry, said: “We’ve had enough of inquiries, consultations and discussions… we have set out what action is required and people should just get on with it locally and nationally.”

However, Conservative shadow fairness secretary Robert Jenrick argued that a recent national inquiry was needed, saying: “We now recognize so much more.”

He added: “The Jay review looked at six towns. We now suspect that at least 50 towns have had grooming gangs of this benevolent.

“We can try to prevent other vulnerable youthful girls from being in this position again, and the frankly cowardly officials and councillors who have covered this up can also be brought to fairness.”

The Conservatives have said they will try to add an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools invoice calling for ministers to establish a “national statutory inquiry into historical kid sexual exploitation, concentrated on grooming gangs”.

The Labour government has a large majority in the House of Commons and therefore the amendment, which if approved would kill the invoice, is unlikely to pass.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said MPs should not be voting down a invoice which includes measures for safeguarding children.

Speaking to The Mirror, Sir Keir said: “It’s shocking they are even thinking about this as a tactic. It’s the elevation of the desire for retweets over any real earnings in the safeguarding of children.”

But shadow education minister Neil O’Brien claimed the government was “blocking a packed national inquiry”, adding: “Labour MPs now have a first chance to vote to provide victims answers and fairness, and pass an amendment that will make obvious that the will of Parliament is for a national inquiry.”

Asked about her reaction to Mr Musk’s comments about her personally, Phillips said his remarks were “ridiculous”.

She said the criticism she was currently facing would be “worth it… only if we make an actual transformation”.

“And if I have to leave through all of this and I haven’t changed the way local areas deal with grooming gangs in two years’ period, it wouldn’t have been worth it,” she added.

She said suggestions Labour politicians worried inquiries would be unpopular with their own voters was “an absolute load of rubbish”.

Phillips, who ran a domestic abuse refuge before becoming a Labour MP, also strongly defended her own record on tackling violence against women.

“I’ve worked in this field for years. I have met with, I have supported, for a number of years, girls who are still being groomed.

“I’ve travelled across the country in the middle of the night, something that I very much question that [Conservative leader] Kemi Badenoch or [shadow home secretary] Chris Philp have done to get a youthful woman, literally while she was bleeding from a battering… to receive her to a place of safety.”

Speaking at an occurrence in Las Vegas on Tuesday, X CEO Linda Yaccarino defended Mr Musk’s comments, saying: “If not for X, where would the exchange be to save thousands of girls, to bring people to fairness who must be brought to fairness?

“Those grooming trials would have stayed silent, and now we’re looking at an inquiry. So I look at the bravery and the imagination courage to do that.”

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper set out actions she was taking to implement the recommendations of the Jay review, including criminal sanctions for those who fall short to update kid sexual abuse.

Phillips dismissed suggestions the government had been prompted into action by Mr Musk’s interventions.

“To be perfectly truthful, the things that Yvette Cooper was announcing yesterday are all things that we were working incredibly challenging on ensuring,” she said.

“So all of these things are things that would be happening – all that this current furore has done is made it so that everybody’s talking about it.”

In a divide interview with Sky information, Phillips suggested Mr Musk should “crack on with ‘getting to Mars'”.

“Elon Musk is going to [be] Elon Musk. I’ve got bigger and more significant things to be thinking about,” she said.

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