Home Office minister Jess Phillips tells Sky News she has “bigger and more important things to be thinking about” than tech billionaire Elon Musk’s social media posts attacking the government over its record on grooming gangs. Follow for live updates.
Tuesday 7 January 2025 20:17, UK
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Hundreds of British politicians have called on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to boycott next month’s Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan.
MPs and peers from across parliament, including Nigel Farage, Jeremy Corbyn, and Lord Kinnock, called for the England men’s one day international side to refuse the fixture which is set for 26 February in Lahore, Pakistan.
Led by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, many in Westminster have said the boycott would be a way to take a stand against the Taliban regime’s assault on women’s rights.
Sky News explains in full below…
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, South African-born American resident and owner of X (formerly Twitter), is already within the fold of US politics and president-elect Trump’s upcoming government.
Recently, more of his attention has turned to Europe, with Mr Musk sharing support for the far-right German party AfD, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Niall Paterson looks to unpick what Mr Musk’s aims for European politics might be. Our deputy political editor Sam Coates joins Niall to discuss the billionaire’s posts on X and the political reaction to them.
Plus, culture, technology and society writer Sarah Manavis joins Niall to explore why Mr Musk is so interested in international politics, and for what potential gain.
Rachel Reeves is on course to tighten Whitehall public service budgets further than expected in the spending review because of the worsening economic outlook, Sky News can reveal.
This will pit the chancellor against some ministers who already claim she is sacrificing the manifesto promises they are expected to deliver – which will no longer be possible on tight budgets – so that she can fulfil her promises.
The chancellor committed in the budget to pay for day to day government spending through taxation rather than borrowing, something that has not been achieved for decades.
In the October budget she left herself just £9.9bn of leeway, out of a total bill for public spending that tops £1trn. Worsening economic conditions – including borrowing costs reaching their highest levels since 1998 – mean that the buffer could now be as little as £1bn and could now be eroded altogether.
Sky News understands the Treasury is braced for the possibility that on the Spring Statement on 26 March, the Office for Budget Responsibility judges she is in breach of her fiscal rule, and would take immediate action to avert this.
We understand she will stick to her borrowing promises – the fiscal rules announced in the October budget. The Treasury has also committed that there will be no tax changes in the Spring Statement on 26 March.
In this event, Ms Reeves would be left with no choice other than to shrink public spending budgets further, as well as look for additional, potentially politically unpopular cuts to the welfare budget.
Could Reeves shrink public spending budgets?
In the budget, Ms Reeves allocated a more generous 4.3% spending uplift in 2024/5 and more modest 2.6% in 2025/6.
But after that she has allocated just 1.3% from 2026 to 2029, which is lower than any point during the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments, or any point under Boris Johnson.
Worsening economic conditions would mean Ms Reeves had to squeeze budgets further, offering even less than 1.3% a year after 2026, which will likely put herself on a collision course with departments like the Home Office, justice, housing, transport and the environment.
The 1.3% uplift must already account for increases in defence spending to put the UK on course to reach 2.5% of GDP for defence, meaning less for the rest of Whitehall, and any further shrinkage of the budget is likely to be greeted with horror by some cabinet teams.
Robbie Moore, the shadow minister, is now joining Sophy Ridge on the Politics Hub show to discuss the Conservatives’ call for a government-led inquiry into grooming gangs.
He says this is something he has been calling for since he became an MP, particularly in the Bradford district which he represents in part.
“This is something that has haunted my constituency and the wider Bradford district for a significantly long period of time,” Mr Moore explains.
“And that is exactly why I have not stopped campaigning on this issue since getting elected, back in 2019. Quite rightly, I think the leader of the opposition, Kemi [Badenoch], has called for a national inquiry looking at this issue.”
But Sophy asks why this can’t be a local inquiry.
Mr Moore says: “The very point here is when you are faced with local leaders, like I have across the Bradford district, who are not willing to give for the public that request.
“And you have a West Yorkshire mayor who is in charge of policing across the West Yorkshire district, not willing to give the public that desire, those victims, that desire of a national inquiry.
“The government should step in.”
Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, has today reacted for the first time to criticisms over Labour’s reluctance to hold a government-led inquiry into grooming gangs.
Elon Musk had called Ms Phillips a “rape genocide apologist”, adding that she should be jailed – and criticising Sir Keir Starmer for failing to prosecute gangs in the past.
It came after the minister rejected a request for the government to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.
The government say an inquiry of this nature – led by Professor Alexis Jay – has already taken place, and the recommendations have yet to be implemented.
You can hear what Ms Phillips had to say below:
Earlier today, our political editor Beth Rigby sat down with safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who spoke for the first time in the midst of a row over grooming gangs.
Ms Phillips has said she has “more important things to be thinking about” than Elon Musk after he accused her of being a “rape genocide apologist”.
The safeguarding minister has hit back at the billionaire’s criticism of her for the first time, telling Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast that his claims are “ridiculous” and she will be led by what victims have to say, not him.
Mr Musk made the comments after Ms Phillips denied a request for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, saying it should be done at a local level.
The town in Greater Manchester was one of a number of areas where girls as young as 11 were groomed and raped over a decade ago in a national scandal that was exposed in 2013.
Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is live now on Sky News.
Today, we’ll hear our political editor Beth Rigby‘s conversation with safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, in the wake of a row over Labour’s reluctance to launch a nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs.
We’re also joined by shadow environment minister Robbie Moore.
On the panel are Labour MP Dawn Butler and journalist Daisy McAndrew.
You can watch live in the stream above.
Finally, our political editor Beth Rigby asked Jess Phillips what she would want to say to Elon Musk.
The billionaire business tycoon has made numerous comments and claims about Ms Phillips over the last week, which Sir Keir Starmer said had crossed a line.
This included calling her a “witch” and a “rape genocide apologist”.
But Ms Phillips simply said: “Elon Musk is going to Elon Musk.”
She added: “Crack on with ‘getting to Mars’.
“I’ve got I’ve got bigger and more important things to be thinking about.“
You can listen to Beth’s full interview with Jess Phillips in Electoral Dysfunction, out on Friday.
The Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge will be live at 7pm.
Today, we’ll hear our political editor Beth Rigby‘s conversation with safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, in the wake of a row over Labour’s reluctance to launch a nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs.
We’re also joined by shadow environment minister Robbie Moore.
On the panel are Labour MP Dawn Butler and journalist Daisy McAndrew.
Our political editor Beth Rigby asks safeguarding minister Jess Phillips about calls from the Conservatives for a national public inquiry into grooming gangs.
But Ms Phillips questions why members of the former Conservative government never attended meetings “trying to advance policy” on child sexual exploitation.
She said: “It’s amazing that Kemi Badenoch would say 2025 should be the year that victims get the response.
“Funnily enough, this all started about an Oldham inquiry, which a government she was part of also said should be done locally.
“And the fact that Kemi Badenoch is reacting to something that Elon Musk has said – I am reacting to things that victims say to me.
“I watched what happened in the Telford inquiry, because I was there. I helped and supported the victims throughout that inquiry.”
She says it is “amazing” that the Tories – who were only out of government six months ago – are making these claims when she has never seen key players Kemi Badenoch, Chris Philp, Robert Jenrick “in any of the meetings that I’ve been in over the years trying to advance policy on this”.
The minister adds she is “really, really angry” about the situation.
She says there was “always the plan” that a group of victims would sit within the Home Office as decision makers on the child sex abuse inquiry and how to make it happen.
“I will listen to them, not to a man who spreads misinformation.”
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