JESS Phillips has slammed Elon Musk over the grooming gangs scandal, labelling him “ridiculous” and says he knows “absolutely nothing”.
The Safeguarding Minister said she is worried for her own safety, with the tech billionaire’s abuse having “turned my world upside down”.
ITV NEWSJess Phillips speaking to ITV News today[/caption]
ReutersTesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk[/caption]
ReutersSir Keir Starmer speaking on Monday[/caption]
Tesla boss Mr Musk has spent the last week savaging Labour online for refusing to hold a Home Office-led public inquiry into historic sexual abuse by grooming gangs in Oldham.
He attacked the decision taken by Ms Phillips – after a plea from Oldham Council – as “disgraceful” and said she should be in prison.
Instead, the minister has said any such investigation must be made at a local level.
Mr Musk has also backed EDL leader Tommy Robinson as part of his barrage, describing him as a political prisoner – despite the far-right agitator being jailed for committing contempt of court.
LIES AND MISINFORMATION
It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer yesterday blasted X owner Musk for “spreading lies and misinformation”.
Speaking to ITV News, Ms Phillips said: “The thing that annoys me the most about it is it takes up so much bandwidth of my time from a man who knows absolutely nothing about the subject he’s talking about.
“When the only thing I ever want to be doing is being able to use all of my brain power to focus on the hundreds of girls I have supported over the years who have been victims of grooming gangs and what needs to happen to make their lives better and to stop what is still happening today.”
She went on to say that one of the victims she supported previously sent her a message over the weekend saying: “You’re one of the only people who has never used me for a vote and has never used me to get a cheer.
“And that is what they tell me, what they tell me needs to happen next.”
Mr Musk’s comments have sparked a political row, with the Conservatives and Reform UK now also calling for a new public enquiry.
Ms Phillips said the victims’ voices are the only people she is going to be led by going forward.
A seven-year national inquiry into child abuse in England and Wales, commissioned by the Tories in 2015, looked at grooming gangs, as well as abuse in places like schools and the church.
Chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, it concluded in 2022 but none of its recommendations have been implemented.
Ms Phillips said her “instinct” would always be to push for local inquiries, as she did previously in Telford, before taking a jibe at Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
The opposition chief has declared 2025 as the year for victims getting justice, just months on from her party being voted out after 14 years in government.
COMMENT: ‘Musk’s grooming gangs tirade spurring government action’
By Jack Elsom, chief political correspondent
ELON Musk’s grooming gangs tirade is spurring government action, the head of the latest child sex abuse inquiry admits.
The tech boss was credited by Prof Alexis Jay with bringing fresh focus to measures designed to protect children.
She called Musk’s comments “very uninformed” but added: “I am pleased the subject matter and recommendations are getting the attention they deserve. It has had the effect of moving on the agenda.”
But the expert, who led an inquiry from 2016 to 2022, says a new inquiry is unnecessary
Ms Phillips questioned whether the likes of Ms Badenoch have “even read the documents that came out of Telford, or in fact any of the inquiries that have already happened”.
She said that inquiry was the only one to “actually change” the way councils, police and the CPS operate.
“When I was asked to make that decision, my instinct was to try and get for Oldham what I’d seen in Telford, which was a locally led independent inquiry,” she continued.
Asked if she agreed that Home Office support would help give an inquiry in Oldham more power, Ms Phillips said she is arranging to speak to those who have called for it.
However, she emphasised the Telford inquiry, unlike the national probe chaired by Alexis Jay, saw things “change way quicker”.
“Having a Home Office led inquiry into what happened in Oldham… that is not what I’ve seen work”.
She added: “I will base my decisions on evidence, not on very rich men in America.”
The minister also denied Musk’s “intervention” has helped to move things along, saying she is “apoplectic” that progress into acting on recommendations made by the national inquiry has “been so slow”.
She said, prior to Labour winning the General Election, she had called on then-Home Secretary James Cleverley for a “time line on the process”.
“Within the first days of me being in the job I’m in, I set up a cross-government group in order to get the recommendations looked at by every department.”
She added: “I had every intention before Elon Musk even owned Twitter to ensure that that was led by a panel of victims as well.”
Why has Tommy Robinson been jailed?
By Ryan Merrifield, news reporter
Tommy Robinson was jailed for 18 months in October after showing a film containing slurs about a Syrian refugee.
The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, appeared at Woolwich Crown Court after breaching a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating false claims about a then-schoolboy.
Far-right activist Robinson was accused of being in contempt of court over having “published, caused, authorised or procured” a film titled Silenced, which contained the libellous allegations.
Contempt of court is a legal term that describes behaviour that interferes with the justice process or risks unfairly influencing a court case, according to Gov.uk.
The Solicitor General said he “knowingly” breached the order on four occasions.
Robinson breached a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating false claims about then-schoolboy Jamal Hijazi, who successfully sued him for libel.
The Solicitor General issued the first contempt claim against Robinson in June 2024, claiming he “knowingly” breached the order on four occasions.
In court last year, Robinson admitted the charges.
Lawyers previously told a judge that the breaches included Robinson having “published, caused, authorised or procured” a film titled Silenced, which contained the libellous allegations, in May 2023.
The second claim was issued in August, concerning six further breaches, including playing the film to a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London earlier this year, which lawyers for the Solicitor General told an earlier hearing was a “flagrant” breach of the court order.
Aidan Eardley KC, for the Solicitor General, said the film was viewed “very extensively”, including being seen by 2.2 million people after being reposted by Andrew Tate.
And, he said in written submissions that by the time the second claim was issued, it “had received 44m views on X alone”.
He claimed that all of the paragraphs of the injunction were breached “at one point or another” by the film.
The sentence for contempt of court can be up to two years imprisonment at the Crown Court or one month at the magistrates’ court.
Silenced is a film which contains the false and libellous allegations about Mr Hijazi which Robinson was banned from repeating.
Sasha Wass KC, for Robinson, told the court that the film’s production was funded by Infowars, a company run by American Alex Jones, who has claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.
The activist played the film to a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London.
It also remains pinned to the top of Robinson’s profile on social media site X, while he also repeated the claims in three interviews between February and June 2023.
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