The video discusses the impactful work of Jess Phillips, focusing on her efforts in supporting victims of grooming and sexual abuse. Jess shares her firsthand experiences of dealing with cases where authorities failed to take action and describes the changes witnessed due to the national inquiry into child sexual abuse. Despite facing political challenges and accusations from public figures like Elon Musk, Jess's dedication to her cause is unwavering.

In her fight against grooming gangs and violence against women, Jess critiques political figures who use these issues as a political tool without genuine involvement in the cause. She highlights the practical outcomes and changes achieved by involving victims in advisory roles, and criticizes those who engage in "political football" with such serious matters. Jess also warns against the risks involved when such issues are sensationalized in the media, potentially retraumatizing victims.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. intimation [ˈɪntɪˌmeɪʃən] - (noun) - An indirect or subtle suggestion or hint. - Synonyms: (hint, suggestion, implication)

Being in the spotlight like this and the intimation of what Elon Musk is, the disinformation...

2. disinformation [ˌdɪsˌɪnfərˈmeɪʃən] - (noun) - False information spread deliberately to deceive. - Synonyms: (deception, falsehood, misinformation)

...the disinformation, as I believe the Prime Minister referred to it as, has put out about me...

3. grooming [ˈɡruːmɪŋ] - (verb / noun) - The process of preparing or training someone for a particular purpose or activity, often used in the context of manipulative behavior to exploit or abuse. - Synonyms: (preparing, training, manipulating)

Like a grooming gang will literally mark you with a knife so that your ownership is clear

4. battering [ˈbætərɪŋ] - (noun) - Physical beating or violence inflicted on someone. - Synonyms: (beating, thrashing, assault)

...while she was bleeding from a battering from her groomers...

5. cathartic [kəˈθɑrtɪk] - (adjective) - Providing psychological relief through the release of strong emotions. - Synonyms: (cleansing, purging, relieving)

...it felt like a sort of cathartic moment.

6. trafficked [ˈtræfɪkt] - (adjective / verb) - Illegally traded or transported, often for exploitative purposes. - Synonyms: (smuggled, traded, transported)

...I have met girls trafficked around the country...

7. ferrari [fəˈrɑːri] - (noun) - A noisy uproar or commotion. - Synonyms: (uproar, commotion, fuss)

...all that this current ferrari has done is made it so that everybody's talking about it.

8. modus operandi [ˈmoʊdəs ˌɒpəˈrændiː] - (noun) - A particular way or method of doing something, especially one that is characteristic or well-established. - Synonyms: (method, procedure, process)

...have a victims panel. It's not my modus operandi.

9. endangering [ɛnˈdeɪndʒərɪŋ] - (verb) - Putting someone or something at risk or in danger. - Synonyms: (risking, jeopardizing, imperiling)

...the disinformation...has put out about me, is endangering.

10. bandwidth [ˈbændˌwɪdθ] - (noun) - The mental capacity or resources required to deal with a particular situation. - Synonyms: (capacity, resources, energy)

...seemingly far, far greater. It takes up a huge amount of bandwidth...

Jess Phillips - Elon Musk's attacks “endangering” me

Being in the spotlight like this and the intimation of what Elon Musk is, the disinformation, as I believe the Prime Minister referred to it as, has put out about me, is endangering. Now, I've worked in this field for years. I have met with, I have supported for a number of years, girls who are still being groomed, girls who I've sat for nine hours at a police station while they're giving their evidence, only to be told no further action. I've travelled across the country in the middle of the night, something that I very much doubt that Kemi Badenoch or Chris Philp have done to get a young woman, literally while she was bleeding from a battering from her groomers, to take her to a place of safety. Everything, every decision I make comes from that experience and their voices. And what I saw happen in Telford is the exact opposite of what I have seen happen because of the national ICSA inquiry for the last two years since it came out, I saw change happen.

So from the previous reviews into what happened in Telford and and other towns, you saw actual progress? I saw actual progress. I saw council officers change the way that they deal with things. I saw victims brought in to that council as independent advisers to get the recommendations done. Can I ask you to address the suggestion by some that you turned the Home Office National Review into what happened in Oldham down because it would be very unpopular with some Labour voters. Your majority general election, I can see that you're smiling at that, was reduced to 693. Nick Timothy, Conservative MP, former chief of staff to Theresa May, wrote this. There are allegations about the conduct of senior Labour councillors in Oldham. Is that what it's about? What an absolute load of rubbish it is. Absolutely. And when somebody like Nick Timothy, who worked in the Home Office for decades and did nothing about this, suddenly he's there. Why didn't he, if he thought that this was so important? They are simply playing politics.

I have absolutely no interest. The idea that I'm trying to protect anyone belies the hours I've sat in police stations trying to get people taken down, belies the amount of time I've sat next to victims in a courtroom because they'll only give their evidence because I'm sat next to them. It is a disgraceful thing to say by people who have done nothing. You have spent your working life, as you pointed out, trying to help women and girls who've survived violence and sexual abuse. You're in touch with victims every day. What are they saying to you about the issue of these mass rape gangs being back at the top of the political agenda and the way it's got there whenever it's in the news, because it comes around periodically, I send out messages to all of the young. Most of them aren't girls anymore.

Many of them are young women who I've worked with over the years to just check they're okay, because it's pretty grim for them that their trauma gets used as a political football by people who would never hang around with them in real life and don't care about them at all. So I always check in with them. But in this instance, there's a group of the victims got in touch with me to make sure that I was okay. And, you know, it felt like a sort of cathartic moment. These women were able to be the person to try and help. It is horrendous for them. I can't get out of my head the image of some of the things that I have seen that these young women I've met, women who've been branded.

Just explain what that means. Like a grooming gang will literally mark you with a knife so that your ownership is clear. I have met girls trafficked around the country, literally put in warehouses above some shop or another in a place they don't know and raped repeatedly. The idea that some knee jerk based on so, you know, a rich man a thousand miles away is the way to serve these children and change things in the future.

It appears that this intervention from Elon Musk has put this at the top of the political agenda in this country. We saw Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, announce new and accelerated measures in the Commons last night. Has he not helped accelerate things? Look, my mother taught me never waste a crisis. And I absolutely don't intend to waste this one. And I will make everybody's sudden interest in this, make some actual outcomes in this area.

But has he prompted that? To be perfectly honest, the things that Yvette Cooper was announcing yesterday are all things that we were working incredibly hard on, ensuring just the announcement of them gets made. The idea that we were going to have a victims panel, you can't imagine that I would ever set up a group about child sexual abuse and not have a victims panel. It's not my modus operandi. I'm not the last lot. So all of these things are things that would be happening. All that this current ferrari has done is made it so that everybody's talking about it. And so we're out there talking about the actions we were always going to take.

Elon Musk described you on X as a rape genocide apologist. What did you think when you saw that? I'm no stranger to people who don't know what they're talking about, trying to silence women like me. Since he started posting about you, are you having to go about your daily life differently at all? Yes, my daily life is currently different. I won't go into the details of that, but yes, it is. Being in the spotlight like this and the intimation of what Elon Musk is, the disinformation, as I believe the Prime Minister referred to it as, has put out about me, is endangering.

You have received hundreds of threats in the past, rape threats, death threats. You've had to install a panic alarm in your constituency office at one point. Is this different, though? The level of attention is seemingly far, far greater. It takes up a huge amount of bandwidth and I cannot let it take up that bandwidth in my life. Whether that's fear of my safety, whether that's just the volume of communication that comes with it, you know, people. I mean, it's people being nice as much as it is people being awful. It is a lot. And I have a job to do to get the recommendations of the previous and to ensure that we are.

You know, the way I will react to this is I will be getting all of the council leaders together to ask them to look at exactly what Telford did, because that's what I know worked, and look at how we can actually make an actual change, rather than just wave a flag and hope that it will make it better. I just want to be absolutely clear. Are you saying that as a result of some of Musk's tweets, that the threat to you has gone up and things are in place to protect your safety? Yes.

How does that make you feel? Resigned to the lot in life that you get As a woman who fights violence against women and girls, I've learnt, I've learned that it's ups and downs in my life, but what it makes me know is I have to just keep on going. Is it worth it? It's worth it to me. Only if we make an actual change. That's what's worth it to me. And if I had to go through all of this and I hadn't changed the way local areas deal with grooming gangs, in two years time, it wouldn't have been worth it. But I'm fairly certain that won't happen. Jess Phillips, thank you very much for talking to Newsnight.

JESS PHILLIPS, POLITICS, LEADERSHIP, INSPIRATION, SOCIAL ISSUES, ADVOCACY, BBC NEWSNIGHT