The treatment of Jess Phillips over recent days tells me all I need to know about the epidemic of misogyny, abuse and violence against women and girls that still plagues our culture.

The domestic violence campaigner-turned politician, who has spent her career fighting for victims, has found herself the subject of abuse on an industrial scale over the past week that has put her in danger.

In dark moments, it has left her wondering whether she should give up frontline politics for good and go back to the women’s hostels where her work with vulnerable women and girls began.

Outspoken and a women’s campaigner, Phillips has long been a lightning rod.

But when the world’s richest man, who owns a social media platform with 211m followers, starts trolling you as a “rape genocide apologist” – complicit in a what he claims is a cover-up of the most disgusting and sickening abuse – that’s a different order of attention, and danger.

This week, the female politician charged with trying to protect the actual victims of these unspeakable crimes became subject to an avalanche of abuse – and threats – herself.

It was undoubtedly horrific for Phillips, who tells me she felt physically sick and hunted as the tweets came raining down.

And, as everyone piled in with their outrage and indignation, where were the voices of the actual victims themselves?

It has been so vicious, noisy and fraught as the very serious matter of grooming gangs and the exploitation, rape and torture of young victims turned into a political battleground of finger pointing and point scoring.

Imagine for a moment you’re a victim of grooming, rape, or torture and you’re seeing your own trauma being bandied around. Let down once before, how might this furore feel for those victims now?

The Conservatives are now calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Labour shout hypocrisy, but find themselves on the receiving end of an online movement criticising safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and Keir Starmer’s record as the country’s former chief prosecutor.

It prompted The Times’ investigative reporter Andrew Norfolk – who revealed the wide scale abuse of young white girls predominately by Asian men of Pakistani descent back in 2012 – to this week to defend Starmer, who he said had been instrumental in making more prosecutions possible.

He added that there was a “huge increase in convictions” when Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions back in the early 2010s.

This is a scandal that has run for decades and was properly exposed by Norfolk, who’s reporting led to a string of independent inquiries, resignations, police investigations and successful prosecutions.

But it was re-ignited last week by a decision by Philips, revealed by GB News, not to hold a government-led inquiry of grooming gangs in Oldham.

This is because previous investigations, in towns including Telford, Rochdale and Rotherham, were all independent investigations led by the local authority.

That’s not to say Phillips doesn’t want a inquiry in Oldham – she’s encouraged the council leader to set one up. However, the evidence is clear that victims are more likely to come forward when it’s a local inquiry rather than a national one.

But somehow this lit the touch paper for Elon Musk – a tech billionaire strong on tweeting, but light on knowledge of the actual situation in the UK – who launched an avalanche of claims over grooming.

He galvanised opposition politicians to call for action and created a storm that has brought movement from the government too.

This week, Labour committed to implementing some of the recommendations of the Jay Review into child sexual exploitation.

The Jay Review was published in 2022 under the Conservative government, but its suggestions were not enacted by the relevant ministers.

Read more:
Victims of grooming gangs can have inquiry if they want one, Jess Phillips says
What happened in the grooming gangs scandal?
Grooming gangs scandal timeline

Phillips is also setting up a victims’ board that will sit in the Home Office and advise and give feedback on changes that need to be made to get the truth and justice for victims.

There remain questions about whether there should be more? Reform and the Conservatives want a national inquiry into the specific question of grooming gangs – what is their prevalence, their root causes and the institutional failings that let tens of thousands of victims down?

Andrew Norfolk, while stopping short of calling for a national public inquiry, does believe the root causes of grooming gangs have not been properly examined.

He believes they will never be fully stamped out until there’s proper research into what allowed these gangs to flourish.

In her 2022 report into child sexual exploitation, referencing her 2014 inquiry into grooming gangs in Rotherham, Professor Alexis Jay noted “the majority of perpetrators were described as ‘Asian’ by their victims, yet throughout the entire period, councillors didn’t engage directly with the Pakistani-heritage community to discussion how they could jointly address the issue”.

Norfolk, in The Times this week, puts it like this: “It is very difficult to talk about this stuff without being accused of being Islamophobic. That is not going to change.

“Why one very small sub-section of one minority ethnic community was so overwhelmingly, disproportionately responsible for these crimes – that is work that would be vital in bringing about understanding that could enable changes to take place.”

Jess Phillips argues that another inquiry is not what is needed, pointing to the Jay Review, and a string of other independent investigations.

She tells me she wants to get on with getting justice for victims and stamping out sexual abuse.

“There is nothing I will not consider going forward,” she told me, be it prevention programmes, working on community relations, tackling peer-on-peer abuse. And, if the victims want it, a national inquiry.

More on this story:
Jess Phillips hits back at Elon Musk
Why is Musk so interested in UK politics?

You have probably read the headlines over recent days, and you might have felt battered by the noise.

You might be confused about what is going on as politicians trade blows in the Commons and Musk rants online.

You have perhaps read some of the court transcripts of historic cases circulating online that document crimes against young girls so disgusting and barbaric that it makes you want to weep.

That’s why on this week’s Electoral Dysfunction we try to take a step back and spend quite a bit of time talking to Jess Phillips about not just the events of the past few days, but the long shadow of grooming gangs and child abuse.

We talk about Phillips’ own feelings when those Musk tweets landed and what being in the eye of the storm meant for her safety. We talk about the criticisms levelled at her and the prime minister.

I ask her about accusations of cover-ups in order not to stoke racial tensions in local communities, why she doesn’t support a national inquiry and her frustrations at those in positions of authority – be it councillors, social workers, police officers – who failed to protect girls and still haven’t faced a reckoning.

After all the heat and noise, I hope it can offer a bit of explanation and a little light too.

You can listen to Beth’s full interview with Jess Phillips in a special episode of Electoral Dysfunction released on Thursday.