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.

Cathy Newman: Elon Musk launched his attack after you rebuffed Oldham Council’s request for an inquiry into historical abuse in the town. Do you stand by that decision not to hold an inquiry, despite the fact that Alexis Jay’s inquiry only mentioned Rotherham, for example, once in 468 pages.

Responding for the first time to the erratic tech billionaire, Ms Phillips said Mr Musk "knows absolutely nothing about the subject he's talking about" and she wouldn't make her decisions based on a "

The minister suggested her life had been turned upside down after Mr Musk used his X platform to accuse her of being a ‘rape genocide apologist’.

Jess Phillips has spoken about her fears for her life for the first time since Elon Musk unleashed a torrent of abuse against her over the child grooming scandal. The safeguarding minister found herself at the centre of an international storm when she decided not to agree to a national inquiry into child grooming and rape across towns in the north of England because one had already been conducted.

Jess Phillips has said Elon Musk “knows absolutely nothing” about the grooming gangs after the owner of X attacked her on social media. Speaking to BBC Newsnight, the Home Office minister said her life had been put in danger after Musk branded her a “rape genocide apologist”.