The Labour Government is failing Britain on a historic scale.
Jess Phillips is our worst ever safeguarding minister (Image: PA)
When it comes to the unforgivable failure of our political class to tackle the industrial-scale rape of young British girls by grooming gangs whose members were disproportionately of Pakistani origin, few politicians have shown as much moral cowardice and contempt for victims as Jess Phillips. There is failing at your job — and then there is turning your back on abused children while grandstanding on irrelevant causes. Jess Phillips, shamefully, has chosen the latter.
As Safeguarding Minister, Phillips had one job: protect the vulnerable. Not tweet platitudes. Not chase media airtime. Not pick petty fights. Protect. The. Vulnerable. Instead, she has been missing in action. When survivors needed a champion in government, they got silence. When pressure mounted for a full national inquiry, she didn’t just hesitate — she actively refused.
Any minister with an ounce of integrity would have marched into Starmer’s office and demanded action. And if that failed? They’d have resigned in protest. But not Jess Phillips. She stayed silent. She stayed in office. She stayed comfortable — while victims stayed forgotten.
Compare that with Rupert Lowe — only an independent MP, but the only public figure who’s actually taken meaningful steps. Through Britain’s largest political crowdfunder, he has launched an independent inquiry into grooming gangs.
He’s doing what our government, our Home Office, and our so-called safeguarding minister refused to do. He’s fighting for victims. Jess Phillips can’t even manage a meeting.
She agreed to help Lowe, saying she was “more than happy” to talk about co-operation. But it’s hard to see the actual treatment of the former Reform UK MP as anything other than cold indifference.
And now she has the audacity to attack others? Kemi Badenoch was absolutely right to call Phillips the worst safeguarding minister this country has ever had. Worse than the many ministers who let this scandal fester for over two decades.
Worse than those who denied it, downplayed it, or deliberately ignored it. Because Jess Phillips was handed the portfolio after we knew the scale. After xthe public outcry. After victims’ voices finally broke through. And she still did nothing.
Now, as this scandal rocks 50 towns across Britain — not two, not 10, 50 — we’re told Labour cares. We’re told they’ve “learned.” Yet where was the national inquiry just a few weeks ago, or when we were being told this was nothing more than a far-right bandwagon?
Instead, Labour plays politics. They kill the legislation that would help. They spin their opposition as “compassion.” And they sit silently while the country’s safeguarding minister shrugs her shoulders and blames others.
It’s dishonest, it’s disgraceful, and it proves beyond doubt that Labour has zero intention of dealing with this crisis. All of us should be very sceptical of how effective this national inquiry will be under Labour.
Meanwhile, it’s grassroots movements and individual campaigners — not the Government — who have kept the pressure on. This is a national scandal and a national shame. And while Labour plays PR, the public is waking up. They’re seeing through the excuses. They know who’s fighting and who’s hiding.
Jess Phillips should never have been anywhere near the role of safeguarding minister. She has failed survivors. She has failed the public. She has failed the basic test of moral leadership. And the British people will not forget.
Because when the victims of these gangs needed someone in the Government to fight for them, Jess Phillips walked away. And that makes her unfit to serve — in any capacity.
