Elon Musk’s ‘disinformation’ endangering me, says Jess 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 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.”

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.

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp has argued a national inquiry was needed to “get to the truth” of how grooming gangs were able to abuse children. He added that there was “evidence of local authorities covering this up”.

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.

“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.

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 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.”