Jess Phillips challenged to debate Reform's rising star after being accused of 'ignoring grooming gangs scandal'

Mrs Cunningham said: "Women are more unsafe than ever before thanks to Labour.

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"Starmer has released thousands of criminals back on to the streets early with no regard for women’s safety.

"I am calling on Jess Phillips to debate me on women’s safety - she ignored the grooming gangs scandal and now she’s wilfully deceiving voters on this issue.

"Reform will always prioritise prosecuting abuse but will never let women’s safety be hijacked to justify censorship.

"You don’t protect women by silencing speech.

"You protect them by securing borders, enforcing the law, and locking up actual criminals, and that is exactly what a Reform government would do"

Mr Farage has already demanded a debate with Sir Keir Starmer at a working men's club in the Red Wall, with the Clacton MP also putting pressure on Sir Sadiq Khan to take part in a head-to-head showdown.

However, the invitation to debate Mrs Phillips comes amid a bitter spat between Reform UK and Labour over the Online Safety Act.

The Birmingham Yardley MP controversially doubled down on Peter Kyle's comments claim that Mr Farage was "on the side" of prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile.

Writing for The Times, Mrs Phillips said: "If you’ve been living under a rock, you may have missed last week’s row about Nigel Farage and the Online Safety Act.

"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.

"And Zia Yusuf of the Reform Party said that was one of the most disgusting things a politician had ever said. Perhaps he’s been living under a rock too."

However, Reform UK insiders almost instantly rejected Mrs Phillips's attack, blasting the Safeguarding Minister for initially rejecting calls for a national rape gangs inquiry.

Mr Farage also fired back against Mrs Phillips and Mr Kyle, accusing Labour of "gutter politics".

Speaking at a press conference in Westminster, the Reform UK leader added: "For all the Government's talk about protecting children, which they claim is the sole purpose of the Online Safety Act, our criticisms of that and the impositions on free speech that it has imposed, just in its first week of operation, have led to them sinking to the depths, I would suggest that comparisons that somehow we're siding with Jimmy Savile were wholly inappropriate in every way."

Attacks against Mrs Phillips have centred on the rape gangs scandal for more than eight months, with Tesla chief Elon Musk among those to stick the boot in.

Criticisms had been laid directly at Phillips's door after GB News revealed in January that the Safeguarding Minister rejected Oldham's call for a national rape gangs inquiry.

Phillips faced further fury just a few months later after being forced to issue a grovelling apology for delaying of the publication of a report into the grooming gangs scandal.

Labour MPs had also come under ever-increasing pressure to back a rape gangs inquiry ahead of the release of Baroness Casey's bombshell report in June.

Despite previously arguing that those calling for a national probe were "jumping on a far-right bandwagon", the Prime Minister buckled to calls for an inquiry after the report was published.

GB News has approached Mrs Phillips for comment.