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 experience 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 stranger to people who don’t know what they’re talking about trying to silence women like me.”
The row between 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.
Musk’s intervention came in response to Phillips rejecting a request for the government to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham – which sparked calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
Phillips decision was taken in October but first reported by GB News at the start of the year, and then picked up by Musk on his social media platform X.
Phillips defended the government’s decision not to hold a national inquiry, arguing that local inquiries, such as one held in Telford, were more effective at leading to change.
“What I saw happen in Telford is the exact opposite of what I have seen happen because of the national expert inquiry for the last two years since it came out – I saw change happen,” she said.
She said she would be getting council leaders together to learn the lessons from Telford.
“When people say 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 Child 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 Professor 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 justice secretary Robert Jenrick argued that a new national inquiry was needed, saying: “We now know 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 kind.
“We can try to prevent other vulnerable young girls from being in this position again, and the frankly cowardly officials and councillors who have covered this up can also be brought to justice.”
Asked about her reaction to 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 change”.
“And if I have to go through all of this and I haven’t changed the way local areas deal with grooming gangs in two years’ time, 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 doubt that [Conservative leader] Kemi Badenoch or [shadow home secretary] Chris Philp have done to get a young woman, literally while she was bleeding from a battering… to take her to a place of safety.”
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 fail to report child sexual abuse.
Phillips dismissed suggestions the government had been prompted into action by Musk’s interventions.
“To be perfectly obvious, the things that Yvette Cooper was announcing yesterday are all things that we were working incredibly hard 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 separate interview with Sky News, Phillips suggested Musk should “crack on with this ‘getting to Mars'”.
“Elon Musk is going to Elon Musk. I’ve got bigger and more important things to be thinking about,” she said.
