‘Toughen up!’ Bev Turner blasts Jess Phillips’s clapback after Elon Musk’s ‘rape genocide apologist’ attack
GB News star Bev Turner has urged Labour’s Jess Phillips to “toughen up” after her response to Elon Musk’s jibes.
The Home Office minister said her safety is at risk after the tech billionaire used his X platform to accuse her of being a “rape genocide apologist”.
He made the comments after her decision to decline a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in Oldham.
Speaking on the People’s Channel, Bev said Musk had directed his ire at the wrong person and argued Phillips is worthy of praise for much of the work she has carried out in her political career, but was critical of her response to attacks made by the world’s richest man.
“I can’t bear the thought that she has cast herself as the victim in all of this”, said Bev.
“The real victims are the people we need to protect. I think Jess Phillips has done a lot for women and she is the wrong target.
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“Elon Musk did pick the wrong person, actually. But this is what happens. I get really frustrated by female politicians being ‘poor me, poor me’.
“You’re in the public eye, it’s what happens. Toughen up.”
After watching the BBC interview where Phillips responded to Musk’s social media criticism, Bev simply commented: “Give me strength.”
She said Phillips would have been better served adopting a more aggressive approach.
“When you are a woman in the public eye, you are going to get a lot of flak, that’s the job”, she said.
“She either had to come out swinging and take him on and explain why he’s wrong, tell him down the lens why he is wrong, or don’t comment.
“Don’t be all mealy-mouthed saying it’s misinformation. By doing that interview, she made herself look like the victim here.”
Phillips described Musk’s comments as “ridiculous”, stating: “My immediate thought was like just, it’s sort of like, what a joke. And then the realisation of what this is probably going to mean for you.”
The minister indicated her life had been “turned upside down” by the incident, with increased safety risks.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Phillips expressed frustration over the incident consuming her time and attention.
“The thing that annoys me the most about it is it takes up so much bandwidth of my time from a man who knows absolutely nothing about the subject he’s talking about,” she said.
She emphasised her desire to focus on supporting victims of grooming gangs and preventing ongoing abuse.
In response to the tech billionaire’s involvement, Phillips told Sky News that Musk should “crack on with getting to Mars”.
She added she was “really angry” at political opponents, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who had pushed for a national inquiry following Musk’s attacks on the Government.