Home Office minister Jess Phillips has reignited a major row with Nigel Farage after she said his plan to scrap online safety laws would enable ‘modern-day Jimmy Saviles’
Jess Phillips has said Nigel Farage’s plan to scrap online safety laws would empower “modern-day Jimmy Saviles”.
The Home Office minister made the comment a week after Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said Mr Farage was on the side of the disgraced predator.
A huge row blew up after Mr Kyle described the Reform UK leader as in support of “people out there who are extreme pornographers peddling hate, peddling violence”. It comes after Nigel Farage appearances on Sky News spark thousands of complaints.
But Ms Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, has backed Mr Kyle and accused Mr Farage of putting “clicks for his monetised social media accounts” over children’s safety. She hit out at Reform UK’s pledge to ditch the Online Safety Act if it gets into power, explaining that the law exists to “make it harder for paedophiles to prey on children”.
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She mentioned prolific child sex abuser Alexander McCartney, who she called a modern-day Savile, explaining how he used a computer to “groom thousands of children around the world”. And she spoke about one of his victims, 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas, who took her own life after being abused by him.
Writing for The Times, Ms Phillips continued: “I defy anyone to hear that story and tell me we don’t need tougher action to stop predators like McCartney from having access to children like Cimmaron.
“That’s why the Online Safety Act exists — to try to provide that basic minimum of protection, and make it harder for paedophiles to prey on children at will. And we can’t afford to wait. (Baroness) Louise Casey has made clear that much of the vile criminality she exposed in her report on grooming gangs is now rapidly moving online.”
Ms Phillips spoke about her job in government and police informing her of the latest networks of paedophiles they have uncovered, and how a new trend of teenage boys abusing fellow children was emerging. She added: “Perhaps Nigel Farage doesn’t worry about that — there’s no political advantage in it, and no clicks for his monetised social media accounts. But I do.”
Criticising Mr Farage’s arguments that online safety laws will limit free speech, she went on: “I defy Nigel Farage to tell me what any of that has to do with free speech. I defy him to meet even one parent who has lost a daughter to suicide because she was being blackmailed online and tell them that is just the price of civil liberties. Maybe he’d feel differently after that kind of meeting, or maybe he wouldn’t care.
“What a luxury to never worry about anything but likes and clicks. But that’s not how governments should behave. For us, children’s safety has to come before anything else. Sorry if that offends.”
In response to Ms Phillips’s comments, a Reform source said: “Once again we see Labour desperately embarrass themselves with idiotic statements that will never pass the smell test. This is the government who refused time and time again to order a national inquiry into the grooming gangs and have had to suspend the whip from an MP for allegations of the most horrific crimes against children.”
Last week Mr Farage said his party would abolish the Online Safety Act if it got into power. It would mean removing Ofcom’s children’s safety codes, which came into force at the end of July and which order tech companies to bring in age verification tools, tame toxic algorithms and remove harmful content.
The Reform UK leader even admitted he had no idea how he would keep kids safe online if he abolished online safety laws. Asked how he would, Mr Farage told journalists: “Can I stand here and say that we have a perfect answer for you right now? No.”
Following the announcement, Mr Kyle said: “I see that Nigel Farage is already saying that he’s going to overturn these laws. We have people out there who are extreme pornographers peddling hate, peddling violence. Nigel Farage is on their side.
“Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he would be perpetrating his crimes online, and Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side, not the side of children.”
In a broadcast from Reform UK’s London headquarters later that morning, Mr Farage played back Mr Kyle’s comments before saying: “Well this is so absolutely disgusting that it’s almost beyond belief. Just how low can the Labour Government sink in its desperation.
“Yes, of course they’re in trouble. They’re well behind us in the opinion polls. But frankly to say that I would do anything that would in any way aid and abet people like Jimmy Savile, it’s so below the belt it’s almost not true.”
He also urged the public to sign a petition that calls for the Online Safety Act to be repealed.
Mr Yusuf also branded Mr Kyle’s comment “one of the most outrageous and disgusting things a politician has said in the political arena that I can remember”.
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