Jess Phillips Says Elon Musk's Attack On Her Has 'Turned My World Upside Down'
Jess Phillips has said her “world has been turned upside down” after Elon Musk accused her of being an “evil witch” who should be jailed.
She said she had been left worrying about her safety after the tech billionaire told his 210 million followers on X - the social media platform he owns - she was a “rape genocide apologist” after she rejected calls for a public inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham.
Phillips said it was up to the local council, not the government, to instigate such an inquiry.
In a series of posts on X, Musk described Phillips as a “rape genocide apologist who should be put in jail”.
Speaking publicly for the first time about the row, Phillips told ITV News: “It’s ridiculous isn’t it? The things that he’s saying are so ridiculous as to initially make me just go what?
“But then you wake up with the realisation that that’s millions of people that he has said that to and you feel immediately like this is going to turn my world upside down and I have to try and limit for how long that is the case.
“But you know, your immediate, my immediate thought was like just, it’s sort of like, what a joke. And then the realisation of what this is probably going to mean for you.”
Asked if it had turned her world upside down, the minister said: “Yeah a little bit, a lot. Well a lot actually it’s... it’s not great.
“The thing that annoys me the most about it is it takes up so much bandwidth of my time from a man who knows absolutely nothing about the subject he’s talking about.
“When the only thing I ever want to be doing is being able to use all of my brain power to focus on the hundreds of girls I have supported over the years who have been victims of grooming gangs and what needs to happen to make their lives better. And to stop what is still happening today.”
Asked if she worries about her safety, Phillips said: “Of course I worry about my safety. Of course, and you have to, you know, anyone who has worked in the fields of violence against women and girls.
“Risk is dynamic and I have to take account of the risks in my life and this is one of them currently.”
This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Follow HuffPost UK on Twitter, Facebook and Insta