Jess Phillips has launched a fierce attack on Nigel Farage over Reform UK's pledge to scrap the Online Safety Act, claiming such a move would empower "modern-day Jimmy Saviles". The Home Office minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls accused the Reform UK leader of prioritising "clicks for his monetised social media accounts" over children's safety online.
Phillips backed her colleague Peter Kyle following his heated row with Farage last week. The Technology Secretary had said Farage was putting himself on the side of "extreme pornographers" and people like Savile by opposing the legislation.
Online Safety Act protections
Under rules that came into effect on 25th July as part of the act, online platforms including social media sites and search engines must take steps to prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide. Farage has argued the legislation threatens freedom of speech and open debate.
Writing in The Times, Phillips said: "Farage said it's the biggest threat to freedom of speech in our lifetimes. My colleague Peter Kyle said he was siding with modern-day Jimmy Saviles preying on children online."
McCartney case highlights dangers
She said she would like to speak to Farage about "one of those modern-day Saviles, Alexander McCartney". McCartney, who posed as a teenage girl to befriend young females from across the globe on Snapchat and other platforms before blackmailing them, "just needed a computer" to reach his targets, Phillips wrote.
Believed to be one of the world's most prolific online offenders, McCartney abused at least 70 children online and drove one girl to suicide. Phillips said the Online Safety Act exists to try to provide a "basic minimum of protection, and make it harder for paedophiles to prey on children at will".
Police warn of predator tactics
She said police have told her that paedophile networks use "normal websites where their parents assume they're safe" to coerce and blackmail young people. "Perhaps Nigel Farage doesn't worry about that -- there's no political advantage in it, and no clicks for his monetised social media accounts. But I do," Phillips wrote.
"I worry about what it means now and what it will mean when boys reared on a diet of ultraviolent online child abuse are adult men having children of their own. I can't ignore that, neither can Peter Kyle, and, most importantly, nor can millions of parents across the country."
Challenge to Reform leader
Phillips directly challenged Farage: "I defy Nigel Farage to tell me what any of that has to do with free speech. I defy him to meet even one parent who has lost a daughter to suicide because she was being blackmailed online and tell them that is just the price of civil liberties."
Her comments echo those of Kyle, who said last week: "Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he'd be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he's on their side." Farage demanded an apology from the Technology Secretary, who refused to withdraw the remarks.
(PA) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
