Elon Musk knows ‘absolutely nothing’ about women and girls’ safety, says Jess Phillips

Elon Musk knows “absolutely nothing” about protecting women and girls, Jess Phillips has said after the billionaire called her a “rape genocide apologist” and an “evil witch”.Speaking for the first time since Musk’s flurry of abuse to his 210 million followers on X, Phillips, the safeguarding minister, said the comments had made her more worried about her safety.In an interview with ITV News, Phillips also defended her decision to refuse a council’s request for a second national inquiry into so-called grooming gangs, saying a local process would achieve real change more quickly.Phillips’ decision over Oldham council’s request for a national inquiry was the prompt for Musk to take an interest in the issue of the grooming scandal in a series of UK towns and cities, including calling for Keir Starmer to be removed as prime minister.“It’s ridiculous isn’t it,” Phillips said when asked how she felt about Musk targeting her

Tory MPs contact Badenoch to raise concerns about Jenrick’s comments

Conservative MPs have privately raised concerns about Robert Jenrick’s comments about British Pakistanis with the party leader, Kemi Badenoch.Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, has been accused of stoking community divisions to fuel his own leadership ambitions with his remarks about “people from alien cultures”.A Tory MP told the Guardian that colleagues had made representations to Badenoch about Jenrick’s language, which has drawn criticism from community groups.The Liberal Democrats said the Conservative leader should sack Jenrick after he stood by his claim that mass migration meant the UK had imported hundreds of thousands of people who “possess medieval attitudes towards women”.Jenrick was challenged repeatedly on Tuesday morning for having failed to act on the outcome of an inquiry into rape gangs while he was in the Home Office, despite now demanding one, and for rarely mentioning the issue in the Commons until this year

Nigel Farage paid £189,000 last year by gold company to work part-time

Nigel Farage was paid £189,000 last year as a brand ambassador for a gold company, taking his total income since July’s election to just under £600,000.The Clacton MP and Reform UK leader declared the payment for four hours of employment a month with Direct Bullion since July, plus a back payment for work before the election.The Guardian reported last month that he had become a paid brand ambassador for Direct Bullion, in a third job alongside his roles as an MP and a presenter on the rightwing channel GB News.He promoted gold on a podcast sponsored by the company in November hosted by a fellow brand ambassador and influencer.The most recent register of MPs’ interests also shows Farage was paid £4,361

Nigel Farage paid £189,000 for part-time job as ‘brand ambassador’ for gold bullion firm– as it happened

Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, has been paid £189,000 for a part-time job as a “brand ambassador” for a gold bullion firm, it has emerged today.Rowena Mason revealed that Farage had taken on the job in a Guardian story last month, but we now know how much the MP is being paid because he has declared the job in the latest edition of register of MPs’ interests.Farage says, since being elected as an MP, he has been spending no more than four hours a month doing this job, although he was also working for the company before the election, he says.Farage also earns considerable sums as a GB News presenter and the Mail has calculated that, since the election, he has earned more than £500,000 from second jobs, in addition to the £91,000 a year he earns as MP for Clacton.The register also confirms that, as well as being broadly aligned politically with Elon Musk, Farage and some of his Reform UK colleagues earn money from Musk’s social media company X by providing it with popular tweets

Investigators in Bangladesh demand Tulip Siddiq’s bank account details

Anti-money laundering officials in Bangladesh have demanded bank account details for Tulip Siddiq, the UK anti-corruption minister, in the latest escalation of the inquiries into her family’s financial interests.The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), which investigates money laundering and suspicious transactions, wrote to the country’s main banks on Tuesday asking them to provide account details for Siddiq and seven of her family members.Officials also asked for the bank account details of Siddiq’s aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as Bangladesh’s prime minister last year after widespread protests against her rule.Siddiq’s mother, her sister and her brother were also named in the request, which has been seen by the Guardian.Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission has begun an investigation into whether Siddiq, a close ally of the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, helped embezzle billions of pounds as part of a deal for a Russian-funded nuclear power plant

Lib Dems call for Kemi Badenoch to sack Robert Jenrick over ‘divisive comments’

The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, should sack Robert Jenrick for “divisive comments,” the Lib Dems have said, after the shadow justice minister doubled down on his comments about immigrants with “alien cultures”.Jenrick was challenged repeatedly on Tuesday morning for having failed to act on the outcome of an inquiry into grooming gangs while he was in the Home Office, despite now demanding one, and for rarely mentioning the issue in the House of Commons until this year.Badenoch had previously defended the shadow justice secretary’s right to make the comments, which have caused private disquiet among some Conservative MPs.“What I have said is that millions of people have come into our country in recent times, but some of them are coming from countries and cultures that have backwards attitudes to women,” Jenrick told Times Radio. “And that’s backed up by the evidence that we have seen from the Jay report and the testimonies of the victims