“He knows nothing about Jess Phillips, clearly."
Tech billionaire Elon Musk was blasted on BBC Question Time as a Labour peer said he was ‘not fit to lick Jess Phillips’ boots’, hitting back at his attacks on the MP.
In recent weeks, Musk has repeatedly attacked the Labour Party, posting a series of false claims about UK MPs and the grooming gangs scandal on his X platform, falsely accusing ministers of inaction over gang rape and child abuse.
He also targeted Phillips in those posts, after he described her as a ‘rape genocide apologist’.
Earlier this month, Keir Starmer said the comments had “crossed a line” while a defiant Ms Phillips accused the tech billionaire of attempting to “silence women like me”.
Appearing on BBC Question Time, Labour peer Ayesha Hazarika, described Musk’s attacks on Phillips as “absolutely disgusting”.
She said: “We’ve had two MPs murdered in recent times because of things getting too inflamed – two brilliant MPs, Conservative David Amess and Jo Cox from the Labour Party.
“So words do matter. Words have consequences in real life. The attacks he made on Jess Phillips were absolutely disgraceful.
“He knows nothing about Jess Phillips, clearly. I don’t think he knows that much about this country actually, in terms of the stuff he’s been tweeting. Because if he knew anything about Jess Phillips and the fact that she’s dedicated her life to helping women and girls who’ve been abused, he would know that he’s not fit to lick the boots of Jess Phillips on this.”
Hazarika went on to say: “I hear the anger in the room. Abuse against children is absolutely disgraceful. We know it happens in all walks of life, we know it’s happened in the Church of England, we know it’s happened in the Catholic Church.
“Now I am from a Muslim community and I have been absolutely appalled at what has happened, and so many Muslims have been appalled.
“Something very dark happened in these towns across our country, and I as a Muslim person have got to face up to the fact that something was happening in those communities. All good Muslims will think that as well.
“We should ask further questions on this. We should have curious minds, open hearts and we should prosecute this and ask more questions without fear or favour.
“But what we mustn’t do is smear an entire group of people. We wouldn’t say that all Catholics are paedophiles because of what’s happened in the Catholic Church. We must not attack all Muslims.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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