Home Office minister Jess Phillips said the “disinformation” being spread by Elon Musk about gangs in the UK and the government's response was “putting his life at risk”.
Phillips was attacked by the tech billionaire, who called her a “wicked witch” and a “rape advocate”, while demanding that she be jailed.
Britain has been rocked in recent days by controversy over its handling of a series of historic cases involving the sexual abuse of girls by gangs of mainly British-Pakistani men after Musk called for a new national inquiry into the scandal.
Musk's outburst against Phillips, who holds the UK government's security briefing, began after it emerged he had rejected Oldham council's request for the Home Office to hold a Whitehall-led inquiry into alleged misconduct in the Greater Manchester town.
The Home Office has instead urged authorities to carry out their own review, citing examples of investigations in other gang-rape towns, including Telford and Rotherham, while highlighting a national inquiry into child sexual abuse which ended in 2022.
Phillips told the BBC on Tuesday that threats to his life had increased since Musk criticized him on social media platform X, describing the situation as “very tiring”, but added: “I'm not used to strangers.” know what they are talking about trying to shut up women like me.”
However, he added that his treatment at Musk's hands “is nothing” compared to the experiences of victims of abuse.
Phillips told Sky News that SpaceX owner Musk should “go ahead and get to Mars” and expressed his anger at political opponents, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who pushed for a national inquiry into the gangs of repairs after Musk made a similar demand.
Musk reached out for comment.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer issued a staunch defense of Phillips on Monday, paying tribute to her record protecting female victims of violence and abuse.
Phillips' comments came after justice secretary Robert Jenrick admitted the Conservatives could have done “more” to tackle sex offenders while in government.
Jenrick defended the previous Tory administration's record, but told the BBC: “Could we have done more, could we have done more now? Yes, of course – we need to root this out. “
He said the study by Professor Alexis Jay, who led a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales which reported in 2022, only looked at gang rapes in six towns, but added they were active in up to 50.
Jenrick also defended his union's criticism of the Labor government's decision not to launch a Whitehall-led inquiry into the Oldham allegation.
Challenging the last Tory government's refusal to launch an investigation into gang-rapes in Oldham, he said the previous request came from “a small number of councillors”, while the most recent one was made by the municipality itself.
Jenrick, who was unsuccessful in the Tory leadership last year, defended his controversial comments last week that mass immigration to the UK from “foreign cultures” and “medieval attitudes towards women” had contributed to the trend.
He said he would not “hide” or “sanitize” his language to avoid offending, pointing to evidence that fear of being labeled a racist has contributed to authorities failing to take action against gangs made up mainly of Pakistani men.
Starmer accuses Conservative politicians of “expanding what is said on the right” in child sexual abuse, after failing to do so for “14 long years”.
Jay on Tuesday said there was “politics” in the matter and warned that a new investigation could delay the implementation of his proposals.
He criticized people for “getting into an argument” on the issue “in an ignorant way”.
Jay had previously criticized the previous Conservative government for failing to implement the top 20 recommendations in its 2022 report, which warned of “rampant” abuse across society.