"Nothing Is Off the Table" - Except Meeting the Victims: Jess Phillips' Hypocrisy on the Oldham Abuse Scandal
In the arena of public discourse, few phrases ring as hollow as "nothing is off the table." It's the kind of non-committal political speak that sounds decisive while promising absolutely nothing.
Yet this is precisely the mantra that Jess Phillips, our esteemed Safeguarding Minister for Violence Against Women and Girls, continues to chant while systematically avoiding the very table where victims and campaigners of the Oldham abuse scandal sit waiting.
The facts are stark, and increasingly damning: Phillips' response to the Oldham crisis has been twofold in its negligence. First, she sat on Oldham Council's request for a government-led inquiry into industrial-scale abuse for months, allowing it to gather dust on her ministerial desk while survivors waited in painful limbo. When her response finally came, it was a flat rejection of the public inquiry that victims have been desperately seeking.
Then, when the council requested a simple meeting to discuss these urgent concerns, Phillips delivered another blow: she was too busy - "due to the demands on their time".
Too busy to meet with representatives of a community where vulnerable girls were systematically abused while authorities looked away. Too busy to hear firsthand about the inadequacies of a council-led inquiry that failed to deliver justice. Too busy, it seems, to fulfil the most fundamental responsibilities of her role as Safeguarding Minister.
This wasn't a snap decision or an unfortunate diary conflict – it was a calculated, prolonged pattern of avoidance followed by outright rejection. First of justice, then of even the courtesy of a conversation.
The uncomfortable reality is that Phillips, like many Labour MPs representing constituencies with significant Muslim populations, finds herself in a delicate electoral position. The Muslim bloc vote represents a crucial pillar of support in numerous Labour-held seats across the country, including Phillips' own Birmingham Yardley constituency.
Simon GilbertBBC Political Reporter, BirminghamTheSimonGilbert
With British Muslim voters historically supporting Labour by significant margins, any politician with an eye on electoral mathematics would recognise the potential consequences of championing a cause that might alienate this vital demographic.
Phillips is hardly alone in this calculation. Across Labour's ranks, MPs in similar constituencies have maintained a conspicuous silence on the Oldham scandal and the broader issue of the Pakistani Rape Clans. This silence speaks volumes about the party's willingness to subordinate safeguarding concerns to electoral strategy.
But Phillips' case is uniquely hypocritical. This is, after all, the MP who built her entire political brand on being the fearless champion of abused women.
The straight-talking crusader who famously read out the names of women killed by men in Parliament. The politician who proclaimed she would "knife Jeremy Corbyn in the front" rather than plot behind his back. The woman who positions herself as allergic to political expedience when women's safety is at stake.
Where is that famous courage now? Where is that much-vaunted commitment to putting victims first, regardless of political consequences?
The Oldham scandal isn't some abstract policy challenge that can be addressed through committee reports and white papers. It represents the systematic betrayal of vulnerable girls by the very institutions tasked with protecting them.
Andy Burnham's Assurance Review has been exposed as a cover up. Survivors, campaigners, and even local politicians have united in calling for what's obviously required: a national, statutory inquiry with genuine teeth.
Phillips' reluctance to engage reveals the hollowness of her credentials as a champion for victims. It suggests that her advocacy extends only to cases where the political price isn't too steep, where the narratives align conveniently with electoral considerations.
This selective advocacy isn't merely disappointing – it's a betrayal of the principles she claims to embody.
Meanwhile, other Labour MPs follow her lead, maintaining strategic silence on an issue that demands moral clarity. They calculate that the electoral cost of addressing these uncomfortable truths outweighs any ethical imperative to seek justice for victims. After all, who cares about little working class White girls?
What explains this stunning reluctance to engage? The uncomfortable truth is that properly addressing the Oldham scandal would require confronting a narrative that many in Westminster find politically inconvenient.
The failures weren't merely administrative oversights but stemmed from a culture where officials prioritised political sensitivities over the protection of children. Acknowledging this reality carries electoral risks that Phillips, for all her proclaimed fearlessness, appears unwilling to take.
A National Inquiry would see Labour politicians exposed in a way never seen before. It would not be a case of whether politicians would go to prison. It would be a case of how many?
Meanwhile, her ministry continues to produce glossy safeguarding strategies and buzzword-laden press releases—all while real victims in real communities wait for something resembling justice.
The hypocrisy is breathtaking. One cannot position oneself as the nation's premier advocate for abused women while refusing to meet with those who've survived some of the most systematic abuse our country has witnessed. One cannot claim that "nothing is off the table" while treating victims' demands for accountability as an administrative inconvenience. And one certainly cannot pretend to be a fearless voice for victims while carefully tiptoeing around cases that might alienate key voting blocs.
If Phillips truly believed in her role, she would be in Oldham today, meeting survivors, facing their pain, and committing to a process that might finally deliver the truth they deserve. Instead, she offers hollow platitudes from the safety of Westminster, hoping that geographical distance might somehow diminish her moral responsibility.
The people of Oldham aren't fooled. The survivors see through the political theatre. And history will record this moment not as a scheduling conflict, but as a profound failure of moral courage – not just by Phillips, but by @UKLabour that has repeatedly subordinated victims' needs to electoral arithmetic.
Genuine safeguarding isn't measured in speeches or social media statements. It's measured in the willingness to confront difficult truths and stand with victims, even when doing so comes at personal and political cost. By this measure, the only one that truly matters, our Safeguarding Minister has been found catastrophically wanting.
Jess Phillips position is now untenable. And if she doesn't resign soon, just wait until the evidence of the Birmingham Pakistani Rape Clans is shared in all its 'lets f**k all the White girls' style details.
Raja Miah MBE
For those new to me, I’m Raja Miah MBE.
I spent six years leading a small team that exposed how Labour politicians protected Pakistani Rape Gangs and traded the lives of working-class White girls for votes.
Both politicians and police have repeatedly tried - and failed - to have me imprisoned. My crime? Refusing to look the other way while children were being gang-raped.
Despite the efforts of powerful forces including the media, politicians, police, and public officials to silence me and bury the truth, my work continues. This includes my recent appointment to The Rape Gang Inquiry team, led by Rupert Lowe MP.
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