Elon Musk’s attacks on Jess Phillips a ‘disgraceful smear’, Streeting says
Wes Streeting has said attacks made by Elon Musk on Jess Phillips over grooming gangs are a “disgraceful smear” considering the Labour minister’s efforts to support victims of abuse.
The billionaire owner of social media platform X, Tesla and Space X suggested the safeguarding minister “deserves to be in prison” for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.
He also said Prime Minister Keir Starmer had failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice while director of public prosecutions.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage defended Musk, saying the South African-born US businessman had used “very tough terms” but that “in public life, tough things get said”.
Phillips said in a letter to the local council that Oldham must follow other towns such as Rotherham and Telford and commission its own inquiry into historical abuse of children.
Health Secretary Streeting was asked what he would say to Musk after his comments about Phillips, which include calling her a “rape genocide apologist”.
“It is a disgraceful smear of a great woman who has spent her life supporting victims of the kind of violence that Elon Musk and others say that they’re against,” he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.
“And it’s all very well sitting there, and I’m not just talking about Musk – I’m talking about armchair critics on social media – it’s all very easy to sit there and fire off something in haste and click send, when people like Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips have done the hard yards of actually locking up wife beaters, rapists, paedophiles.”
He said the best response from the government to Musk was to focus on “tackling the problem, not talking about it”.
Streeting added that if Musk wants to “roll his sleeves up and actually do something about tackling violence against women and girls”, platforms such as X can help law enforcement to clamp down on people trying to groom children online.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has also defended the safeguarding minister, describing her as a “fearless and formidable” advocate for sexual abuse victims who has “campaigned tirelessly” for justice for those let down by institutional failure.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said some of Musk’s comments about Phillips were “not appropriate” but he was right to raise the issue of grooming gangs.
“I think some of the specific language he used about Jess Phillips is not appropriate, but raising the issue as he has done generally I think is reasonable because vulnerable young girls were let down by the system,” he told the the BBC.
Philp denied he was “playing politics” with calls for a statutory inquiry into cases from Oldham – which the Home Office rejected under both the previous Conservative and new Labour governments.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch repeated her call for an inquiry in the Mail on Sunday, saying “some action was taken under the previous Tory government, but not enough”.
Farage said Musk had put his criticism in “very tough terms”, telling the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “If you do believe they’re inciteful, then they go beyond the line”, but declining to say whether he personally thought the comments had crossed a line.
“In public life, tough things get said. They get said by both sides of the debate,” Farage said.
“This man happens to be the richest man in the world, but equally, the fact that he’s bought Twitter now actually gives us a place where we can have a proper open debate about many things… free speech is back.
“We may find it offensive, but it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
There has been speculation that Musk plans to donate a substantial sum to Reform UK.
Asked if he was reluctant to criticise the billionaire because of this, Farage said: “I think I made it perfectly clear that I don’t agree with everything he stands for, but I do believe in free speech.
“I think he’s a hero, and I said that well before any potential money was offered.”
Richard Tice refused to say it was factually wrong to call Phillips was a “rape genocide apologist” in an interview with Sunday with Lewis Goodall on LBC.
“Mr Musk is entitled to say what he wants,” the Reform UK deputy leader said.
Reform UK has called for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, but Streeting said the government was against launching another nationwide probe because there has already been 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.
The Health Secretary rejected that the government’s reluctance to launching a national inquiry was due to the “dominant ethnicity” of the gangs involved, when asked by Trevor Philips on Sky News.
The government would “absolutely support” a local inquiry in Oldham, he said, and pointed to the probe in Rotherham that highlighted part of the problem there had been some people not speaking up “for fear of being accused of being racist” or failing to take action “for fear of upsetting community cohesion”.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said he is already carrying out an “ongoing major inquiry” that has led to multiple arrests, charges and convictions, adding, “there has been a substantial report into what happened in Oldham”.
By Helen Corbett, PA Political Correspondent