British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticized those "spreading lies and misinformation" after Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, accused Starmer of involvement in a cover-up of historical cases of child sexual exploitation.
In a series of posts on his social media site X in recent days, Musk accused, without providing evidence, the British government of failing to adequately investigate and prosecute so-called "grooming gangs" in Britain.
"Starmer was complicit in the RAPE OF BRITAIN when he was head of Crown Prosecution for 6 years. Starmer must go and he must face charges for his complicity in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain," Musk wrote on X on Jan. 3.
Starmer was Britain's director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013, when many of the sexual abuse cases first came to light.
Musk later described Jess Phillips, Britain's minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, as a "rape genocide apologist." In a poll posted to his 210 million followers on X, Musk asked respondents whether "America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government."
Grooming gang inquiries
The grooming gang investigations stretch back over two decades, involving the sexual exploitation of children between 1997 and 2013 by gangs of men in cities including Rochdale in northern England.
"There was a feeling that grooming gangs, particularly those made up of men from Pakistani descent, weren't being prosecuted and weren't being investigated by police as strongly as they should have been," said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. "Partly, I think, because of the police's attitude towards the complainants — mainly working-class girls who weren't taken very seriously by the police. And also, some would allege, because of sensitivities surrounding the community relations aspect — in other words, police and authorities being scared of being called racist."
Hundreds of men have been convicted of the crime of "gang grooming" since 2005, with a disproportionate percentage of them from south Asian heritage.
Critics such as London's Full Fact and others, however, contest the claim that such crimes are disproportionately carried out by men of Asian descent. And some analyses, such as a 2020 study from the Home Office, have said inconsistent data collection and reporting makes it difficult to draw conclusions over links between ethnicity and child sexual exploitation.
A review published by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority last year into grooming in Rochdale found that the Greater Manchester Police and Rochdale Council failed to properly investigate reports of child sexual abuse by mainly south Asian gangs from 2004 to 2013 despite numerous warnings. Members of grooming gangs have been prosecuted in several other British cities.
Among those alleging an establishment cover-up was the activist Tommy Robinson, the founder of the extreme far-right group English Defence League, who is currently in jail for contempt of court after repeating false claims about a Syrian refugee child.
Musk wrote on X on January 1: "Why is Tommy Robinson in a solitary confinement prison for telling the truth? He should be freed and those who covered up this travesty should take his place in that cell."
Misinformation and lies
Speaking Monday, Prime Minister Starmer criticized the support for Robinson.
"Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they're not interested in victims, they're interested in themselves. Those who were cheerleading Tommy Robinson aren't interested in justice. They're supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case, a gang grooming case," Starmer told reporters.
"Child sexual exploitation is utterly sickening," Starmer said, adding that "for many, many years, too many victims have been completely let down, let down by perverse ideas about community relations or by the idea that institutions must be protected above all else."
Starmer defended his actions as director of public prosecutions, noting that he had reopened numerous child abuse cases, appointed a prosecutor to deal specifically with grooming gangs and brought the first prosecution of an Asian grooming gang in Rochdale in 2012.
"When I left office, we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record," Starmer said Monday.
However, Musk repeated his criticism hours later, labeling the prime minister "utterly despicable" in a post on X.
Starmer dilemma
Starmer did not call out Musk by name, noted analyst Bale.
"If Elon Musk were just Elon Musk and had nothing to do with Donald Trump and his new administration, I think Starmer could take a rather harder line with him. But because of his closeness — at the moment anyway — to Donald Trump, Starmer has to, I think, be very careful. He has to choose his words carefully and, therefore, can't go against Musk by name," Bale said.
Trump is set to be inaugurated as U.S. president on January 20. He has asked Musk to co-lead a new "Department for Government Efficiency."
Musk has not only intervened in British politics. In recent weeks he has strongly criticized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and voiced open support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which is being monitored by authorities for extremism. Germany is set to hold an election next month.
Some European lawmakers have called for regulators to take action against Musk's social media platform, X, for allegedly spreading misinformation.
"I doubt, however, that actually that much will happen in that respect," said Bale, "because although Elon Musk likes to see himself as a kind of free speech absolutist, most politicians in most countries in most parties are themselves in favor of free speech."
Farage twist
In a further twist, Musk on Monday appeared to turn on Nigel Farage, a longtime ally of Trump and leader of Britain's Reform party, which has been courting financial support from Musk.
Musk wrote on X that Farage "doesn't have what it takes" to lead Britain's Reform party, after Farage refused to support jailed activist Tommy Robinson. Farage replied that he stood by his position.
Farage on Friday described Musk as a hero for supporting free speech but added that he has "a whole range of opinions, some of which I agree with very strongly, and others of which I am more reticent about."
