Jess Phillips slams ‘idiot’ councils for denying grooming gang threat

Jess Phillips has condemned “idiot” councils that believe there is no grooming gangs problem, before asserting that Elon Musk did not influence the decision to hold a national inquiry. Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday (6 August), the safeguarding minister said that she ‘doesn’t care” whether local authorities support the inquiry, which was announced in June following a “damning” audit into the scandal from Baroness Casey. When told by the broadcaster that she’d “surprised” at how many areas believe they have no issue with gangs, she responded: “Well, they [the councils] are idiots if they say that”. She added: "I don't follow Elon Musk's advice on anything”, after the SpaceX founder called on the UK to host a new public inquiry amid a series of inflammatory posts against Phillips. “Before anyone even knew Musk's name, I was working with the victims of these crimes.”