Home Secretary hails Jess Phillips as 'fearless and formidable' after Elon Musk slams her over grooming gangs inquiry

5 January 2025, 07:02 | Updated: 6 January 2025, 07:21

The Home Secretary has defended Jess Phillips as a "fearless and formidable" advocate for sexual abuse victims after Elon Musk criticised the safeguarding minister.

The billionaire X owner suggested Ms Phillips "deserves to be in prison" for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.

Ms Phillips said in a letter to the local council that Oldham must follow in the footsteps of other towns such as Rotherham and Telford and commission its own inquiry into historical abuse of children.

Mr Musk also attacked Sir Keir Starmer, saying the Prime Minister failed to bring "rape gangs" to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said Ms Phillips had "campaigned tirelessly" on behalf of those that had been failed by institutions.

"Jess Phillips has dedicated her career to tackling sexual violence and abuse and to being a voice for victims and survivors of the most terrible crimes, including child sexual abuse," she said.

Ex-Rochdale MP on the Elon Musk v Labour grooming gangs row

"From setting up the first ever child sexual exploitation service in the Black Country and supporting survivors in Telford, Jess has been a fearless and formidable advocate for victims and survivors.

"She has worked with whistleblowers and campaigned tirelessly for justice for those badly let down by endemic institutional failure."

As a Home Office minister, Ms Phillips has put the experience of grooming and trafficking victims "at the heart" of the department's work on modern slavery and launched a national scheme so police and staff work together to spot when hotels are used as a site of child sexual exploitation, Ms Cooper said.

Ms Cooper said the Birmingham Yardley MP would keep working on implementing the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, which published its final report in 2022.

Led by Professor Alexis Jay, the inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups following multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010-2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol.

Last year, Ms Phillips described X, formerly Twitter, as a "place of misery" and said she planned to use the site less.

Its owner Mr Musk, a key member of US President-elect Donald Trump's inner circle, shared and reacted to a series of tweets relating to grooming in the UK earlier this week.

The Tesla boss described the Prime Minister as "two-tier Keir", claiming there was "no justice for severe, violent crimes but prison for social media posts" in the UK.

He also said Sir Keir failed to bring "rape gangs" to justice when he was director of public prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013.

Senior Tories including Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch have since sought to put pressure on the Government over grooming gangs.

Whistleblower Sara Rowbotham, co-ordinator of the crisis intervention team set up to support young people in Rochdale, expressed frustration at Mr Musk's posts about the scandal on X, which he owns.

She told The Guardian: "What is (Musk's) motivation for interfering? It seems very political.

"The person he is trying to go after is Keir Starmer - it is a political swipe that is nothing to do with the women and girls who have been abused time after time."

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse described the sexual abuse of children as an "epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake".

In November last year, Prof Jay said she felt "frustrated" that none of the probe's 20 recommendations had been implemented more than two years after its conclusion.