Home Office Minister Jess Phillips said the “misinformation” spread by Elon Musk about UK grooming gangs and the government’s response “threatens” her life.
Phillips was subjected to sustained attacks from the tech billionaire, who described her as an “evil witch” and “genocide apologist,” while calling for her to be imprisoned.
Britain has been rocked in recent days by a dispute over the handling of historical grooming cases involving the sexual exploitation of girls by gangs of mostly British-Pakistani men after Musk called for a new national investigation into the scandal.
Musk's tantrums against Phillips, who holds a warrant of protection in the UK government, began after it emerged she had rejected a request from Oldham Council for the Home Office to hold a Whitehall-led investigation into the grooming scandal in Greater Manchester.
Instead, the Home Office urged the local authority to conduct its own review, citing precedents of investigations in other towns affected by rape gangs, including Telford and Rotherham, while highlighting a national inquiry into the sexual exploitation of children which concluded in 2022.
Phillips told the BBC on Tuesday that threats against her life had increased since Musk's attacks against her on his social media platform I know what they're talking about about trying to silence women like me.
But she added that her treatment at the hands of Musk was “nothing” compared to the experience of assault victims.
Phillips told Sky News that SpaceX's owner should “continue to push forward with getting to Mars” and expressed anger at political opponents, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who pushed for a national investigation into gang grooming after he filed… Holding the same request.
Musk has been contacted for comment.
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer issued a strong defense of Phillips on Monday, praising her record of standing up for women victims of violence and abuse.
Phillips' comments came after Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick admitted the Conservatives could have “done more” to crack down on sexual assault gangs while they were in government.
Jenrick defended the record of the previous Tory administration, but told the BBC: “Could we have done more, should we be doing more now? Absolutely yes, we have to root this out.”
He said the review by Professor Alexis Guy, who chaired a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales that was reported in 2022, only looked at rape gangs in six towns, but added they may have operated in as many as 50 countries.
Jenrick also defended his party's criticism of the Labor government's decision not to hold a Whitehall-led inquiry into the scandal in Oldham.
Faced with the recent Conservative government's refusal to hold an inquiry into rape gangs in Oldham, he said the previous request had come from a “small number of councillors”, while the latest request had been from the local authority itself.
Jenrick, who ran unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party leadership last year, defended his controversial comments last week that the mass migration of people to the UK from “alien cultures” with “medieval attitudes towards women” contributed to the scandal.
He said he would not “hide” or “correct” his language to avoid causing offence, pointing to evidence that fear of being labeled a racist contributed to the authorities' failure to take action against gangs that mainly included men of Pakistani origin.
Starmer accused Conservative politicians of “Amplifying what the far right sayson the sexual exploitation of children, after failing to act “for 14 long years”.
Gay said on Tuesday that there had been “politicization” of the case and warned that a new investigation could delay implementation of the recommendations of her review.
She criticized people for “waving into the debate” over the issue in a “completely ill-considered way.”
Gay had previously criticized the previous Conservative government for failing to implement the 20 key recommendations in her 2022 report, which warned of “endemic” abuse in society.
