BBC Question Time audience applaud the Labour peer and broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika after she said tech billionaire Elon Musk’s attack on minister Jess Phillips was ‘absolutely disgusting’
Question Time: Ayesha Hazarika slams Elon Musk
Elon Musk is “not fit to lick Jess Phillips’ boots” after his attacks on the Home Office minister, a Labour peer has said.
The blistering takedown came after the X owner used the platform to launch an attack on Ms Phillips, describing her as a “witch” and “deserves to be in prison” amid a row over an inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
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”.
Addressing the row on BBC Question Time on Thursday evening, the Labour peer and broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika said his attacks on Ms Phillips were “absolutely disgusting”.
She said: “We’ve had two MPs murdered in recent times because of things getting really 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.
In comments that received an applause, she added: “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.”
Culture minister Chris Bryant also told BBC Question Time that if Mr Musk is “a friend, if he’s a very critical friend” of the UK. He added: “I think the comments he made about Jess Phillips were beyond the pale.”
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Mr Bryant said a lot of women MPs had received horrific abuse over the years, adding: “It means lots of people, women, choose not to take part in British politics. We’ve seen that with lots of people choosing not to stand again because of the abuse they’ve had.”
Last year Mr Musk was named as one of the two heads of a new cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency in the incoming Trump administration.
He has since been vocal in his criticism of Keir Stamer and even posted a survey on X asking users whether the US should “liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”.
