Keir Starmer hits back at Elon Musk on grooming gang claims
Keir Starmer has hit back at Elon Musk today after a series of attacks from the Tesla tycoon over the government’s handling of historic ‘grooming gang’ sex abuse cases.
In a press conference today, Starmer said an online debate about child sexual exploitation gangs was based on “lies” and those fanning the flames were not interested in winning justice for the victims.
“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far as wide as possible, they’re not interested in victims. They’re interested in themselves,” Starmer said, in response to questions around Musk’s criticism.
The Prime Minister has been bombarded with criticism by the world’s richest man after the government announced it would not conduct a fresh inquiry into child sexual abuse in Oldham, following a request from the local council.
Ministers have said the reason they will not launch a new national inquiry is because a 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse had already been carried out.
The refusal to launch a new probe triggered a series of furious attacks from Musk, who wrote on X that safeguarding minister, Jess Philips, “deserves to be in prison” and Starmer was “complicit in the rape of Britain”.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK’s deputy chief, Richard Tice, have also called for a new inquiry into the gangs.
Starmer criticised the calls from UK politicians and said a “line has been crossed” when Phillips and others receive serious threats as a result of the “poison of the far-right.”
“What I won’t tolerate is politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention, when those politicians sat in government for 14 long years, tweeting, talking, but not doing anything about it,” he told reporters.
Now, so desperate for attention that they’re amplifying what the far-right is saying.
The response by Starmer marks his firmest response yet to the billionaire after a deluge of attacks since Labour took power.
Musk, a close confidant of the incoming president Donald Trump, has also called for far-right activist Tommy Robinson to be freed from prison and suggested he may make a $100m donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Over the weekend, Musk appeared to turn on Farage however and called for him to be replaced.