Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips has been challenged to debate one of Reform UK’s rising stars after being accused of ignoring the grooming gangs scandal in a bitter row over women’s safety and online censorship.
Mrs Phillips, who piled in against Nigel Farage over Reform UK’s opposition to the Online Safety Act, was last night called out by ex-Tory councillor Laila Cunningham. The Westminster councillor demanded a head-to-head showdown after Labour doubled down on controversial comments linking Reform to prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile.
Mrs Cunningham said: “Women are more unsafe than ever before thanks to Labour. Starmer has released thousands of criminals back on to the streets early with no regard for women’s safety.
Debate Challenge Over Women’s Safety
The Reform councillor, who defected from the Conservatives in June, threw down the gauntlet to the Birmingham Yardley MP over her handling of the grooming gangs crisis.
“I am calling on Jess Phillips to debate me on women’s safety – she ignored the grooming gangs scandal and now she’s wilfully deceiving voters on this issue,” Mrs Cunningham declared.
“Reform will always prioritise prosecuting abuse but will never let women’s safety be hijacked to justify censorship. You don’t protect women by silencing speech. You protect them by securing borders, enforcing the law, and locking up actual criminals, and that is exactly what a Reform government would do.”
The challenge comes as Mr Farage has already demanded a debate with Sir Keir Starmer at a working men’s club in the Red Wall, with the Clacton MP also putting pressure on Sir Sadiq Khan to take part in a head-to-head showdown.
Phillips Under Fire Over Oldham Decision
However, the invitation to debate Mrs Phillips comes amid a bitter spat between Reform UK and Labour over the Online Safety Act and the grooming gangs scandal.
Mrs Phillips has faced mounting criticism since January when GB News revealed she had rejected Oldham Council’s call for a national rape gangs inquiry. The Safeguarding Minister told the local authority to “take its own approach” instead of providing government support.
In her letter to Oldham Council, Phillips said it was for “Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the Government to intervene.” The decision sparked outrage, with Tesla chief Elon Musk among those calling for her to be jailed.
The controversy deepened when it emerged Phillips had rejected a request to meet with Oldham Council leaders “due to the demands on our time,” suggesting they engage with other areas instead.
Controversial Jimmy Savile Comments
The Birmingham Yardley MP controversially doubled down on Technology Secretary Peter Kyle’s comments claiming that Mr Farage was “on the side” of prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile over his opposition to the Online Safety Act.
Writing for The Times, Mrs Phillips said: “If you’ve been living under a rock, you may have missed last week’s row about Nigel Farage and the Online Safety Act. Farage said it’s the biggest threat to freedom of speech in our lifetimes.”
She continued: “My colleague Peter Kyle said he was siding with modern-day Jimmy Saviles preying on children online. And Zia Yusuf of the Reform Party said that was one of the most disgusting things a politician had ever said. Perhaps he’s been living under a rock too.”
Kyle had originally sparked fury by telling Sky News: “Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side.
Reform Hits Back at ‘Gutter Politics’
However, Reform UK insiders almost instantly rejected Mrs Phillips’s attack, blasting the Safeguarding Minister for initially rejecting calls for a national rape gangs inquiry.
Mr Farage also fired back against Mrs Phillips and Mr Kyle, accusing Labour of “gutter politics. Speaking at a press conference in Westminster, the Reform UK leader added: “For all the Government’s talk about protecting children, which they claim is the sole purpose of the Online Safety Act, our criticisms of that and the impositions on free speech that it has imposed, just in its first week of operation, have led to them sinking to the depths.
He continued: “I would suggest that comparisons that somehow we’re siding with Jimmy Savile were wholly inappropriate in every way.”
Eight Months of Grooming Gangs Fury
Attacks against Mrs Phillips have centred on the rape gangs scandal for more than eight months, with Tesla chief Elon Musk among those to stick the boot in.
Criticisms had been laid directly at Phillips’s door after GB News revealed in January that the Safeguarding Minister rejected Oldham’s call for a national rape gangs inquiry. The council had voted to request a Home Office-led investigation into historic child abuse in the town.
Phillips faced further fury just a few months later after being forced to issue a grovelling apology for delaying the publication of a report into the grooming gangs scandal. She later admitted in April that there had been a “cover-up” but continued to dismiss calls for a full national inquiry.
Sam, a grooming gang survivor from Oldham, told GB News she was “infuriated” that Phillips could make decisions without speaking to victims: “It’s infuriating to think a person who has no knowledge of what it’s like in Oldham and has never met one of us survivors in real life can make these decisions.
Labour’s U-Turn on National Inquiry
Labour MPs had also come under ever-increasing pressure to back a rape gangs inquiry ahead of the release of Baroness Casey’s bombshell report in June.
Despite previously arguing that those calling for a national probe were “jumping on a far-right bandwagon”, the Prime Minister buckled to calls for an inquiry after the report was published. The Casey Report criticised decades of institutional failure to protect children from grooming gangs.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp and Shadow Safeguarding Minister Alicia Kearns wrote to their Cabinet counterparts urging them to reconsider, saying their decision had “shocked and distressed many survivors as well as outraged the public.
Cunningham’s Rising Profile
Mrs Cunningham, a qualified lawyer and mother-of-seven, has emerged as one of Reform UK’s most outspoken voices since defecting from the Conservatives in June. She cited the party’s failure on issues including women’s rights, crime and the grooming gangs scandal as reasons for her departure.
The Westminster councillor, who represents Lancaster Gate ward, told GB News after her defection: “I was sick of lying and defending the Conservatives. I can finally speak the truth. I feel like that is what we are in politics for.
She gained notoriety as the “vigilante mum” after tracking down muggers who targeted her children, later prosecuting high-profile cases including a man who crashed into Buckingham Palace gates.
Nigel Farage welcomed her defection, describing her as an “enormously talented, successful woman who will add to the professionalisation of our London team.
Online Safety Act Row Intensifies
The debate challenge comes as Reform UK has pledged to repeal the Online Safety Act if elected, with the party describing it as “borderline dystopian” and a threat to free speech.
Under the Act, which came into effect in July, online platforms must take steps to prevent children from accessing harmful content. However, critics argue it has led to censorship of legitimate content and a surge in VPN usage to bypass restrictions.
Reform’s Zia Yusuf said the Act does “absolutely nothing to protect children” and merely works to “force social media companies to censor anti-government speech.
As the row between Labour and Reform intensifies, Mrs Cunningham’s challenge to debate Mrs Phillips brings the issues of women’s safety, online censorship and the grooming gangs scandal to the forefront of political discourse.
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Image Credit (Shortened):
Jess Phillips official portrait (cropped, 10 Jul 2024) – by Andy Taylor / UK Home Office, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
