Jess Phillips says ‘action needed’ to combat grooming gangs
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Jess Phillips has said MPs can jump on the bandwagon of combating grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation – but “it is action that is needed”. In an off-the-cuff speech, the safeguarding minister argued there was a lack of “actual fundamental change on the ground” when the Conservatives were in power and said accepting recommendations does not change people’s lives.
Ms Phillips also told the Commons she has not lost her “gumption” despite US billionaire Elon Musk describing her as a “rape genocide apologist” after she declined a request from Oldham Council for a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in the town.
In a reference to Mr Musk’s tweet, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Ms Phillips and others received threats as a result of the “poison of the far right”. Many MPs spoke out in support of Ms Phillips during a debate on violence against women and girls, including Conservative former minister Dame Karen Bradley, who said she had “immense sympathy for what she is going through”.
Ms Phillips joked that listening to the debate was “a little bit like being at my own memorial”, adding: “To the member who was very pleased to see – from Richmond – that my gumption hasn’t gone away, I’m very much not dead.”. Opening her speech on Thursday, Ms Phillips said: “As a minister what I find is that I get given this speech that I’m told to read, but the member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood) reminded me who I was today, and so I’m going to give an impassioned speech.”.
