The Safeguarding Minister said mainstream popular culture had “massively improved” and that jokes acceptable in the 2010s “wouldn’t be quite as tolerated today”.
11 Nov 2026, 20:24
| Updated: 9m ago
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Jess Phillips has said mainstream popular culture has “massively improved” since the 2010s but admitted “laddishness on steroids” still persists elsewhere and is no longer in the mainstream culutre.
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The former comedian and children’s author has been accused of sexually harassing and grooming several young girls, including one as young as 15.
The publication of the allegations by The Guardian and ITV News went ahead on Tuesday after Walliams’ attempt to seek an injunction to block the investigation was dismissed in the High Court.
Walliams, 55, denies all allegations against him.
Speaking onTonight with Andrew Marr, the MP for Birmingham Yardley said the “reason that abuses of power that have led to cases like the Walliams case are allowed to happen is because one person is much more powerful than the other”.
This leaves victims with “very little recourse to do something about it”, she said.
“So you have to make it so that there are systems and processes in place.”
She added: “What I have to do is look at what regulators, what laws I can put in place to try and rebalance all of that.”
Asked by Marr if having more female bosses at the helm of the workplaces where the alleged abuses occurred would have made a difference, Ms Phillips said women “don’t have a uniquely brilliant track record either.
“The truth is, is that this abuse happens everywhere, and people find it much, much harder to accept it about people that they know and like, or are making money off.
“You have to take away the personal in it and you have to make it systematic.”
Ms Phillips was asked by Andrew about the culture of the 2010s, and whether that decade was uniquely problematic.
‘They may be very powerful, have a celebrity status and are also extremely wealthy.’
Dr. Charlottle Proudman explains the ‘balancing exercise’ that comes with analysing age-gap relationships. pic.twitter.com/Lf2EcioEVW
— LBC (@LBC) November 11, 2026
Marr mentioned recently resurfaced clips from comedy shows and panels in the 2010s depicting audiences roaring with laughter at lewd and sexual jokes.
She said mainstream popular culture had “massively improved” and that jokes acceptable in the 2010s “wouldn’t be quite as tolerated today”.
But she warned “laddishness on steroids” was still being consumed but away from the mainstream media.
She was also asked whether there could be a change in the law to protect younger women from being groomed by men in positions of power.
“The only grooming laws that exist in our country are attached to other laws, such as sexual offences laws or modern slavery laws, and that makes it quite complicated.
“So if you haven’t done one of those other things, You haven’t groomed, essentially.”
She said the grooming process alleged to have been deployed by Walliams “wasn’t criminal”.
But she said there was “probably a way of expanding” laws around abuse of positions of trust, such as a teacher acting inappropriately to a student, that could be used to protect women.
However leading barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman, went a step further and called on the Government to reform the laws around consent.
“One of the things that I would like to see the government look at and perhaps implement a consultation on is consent laws,” she told Andrew.
“And I say that because one of the proposed reforms that could be introduced is a graduated consent law.
“When you have someone who’s in a sexual relationship, say, a 45-year-old man with somebody who may be 17 or 18, it is not just creepy and weird, it’s often underpinned through exploitation, through an inequality and power imbalance, and that can have a profound impact upon victims.”
She said reforming the law would provide special protection for young people above the age of consent in a sexual relationship with a significant age gap.
“They would then have redress, would be able to go to the police, and the police would accordingly be able to investigate that, and the CPS could look at whether they have grounds to prosecute.”
