Sir Keir Starmer hits back at Elon Musk and ‘poison of the far-right’

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the online debate about child sexual exploitation was based on lies, with politicians “jumping on the bandwagon”.

Responding to questions about a slew of social media posts from Tesla owner Elon Musk, Sir Keir said “a line has been crossed” when safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and others receive serious threats as a result of the “poison of the far-right”.

Sir Keir’s comments follow a flurry of posts by Mr Musk on his social media site, X, in which the billionaire claimed Ms Phillips “deserves to be in prison” for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, Greater Manchester, and called her a “rape genocide apologist”.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Musk suggested the Prime Minister was “complicit in the crimes” of child sex offenders, and in a separate post added: “Prison for Starmer.”

He also accused former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown of having “committed an unforgivable crime against the British people” and “sold those little girls for votes”, over his handling of grooming gangs while in office.

Asked about Mr Musk’s posts to his 210 million followers following a speech at Epsom Hospital in Surrey, the Prime Minister said: “Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they are interested in themselves.”

Sir Keir also criticised Mr Musk’s support for jailed right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, saying; “Those who are cheerleading Tommy Robinson are not interested in justice. They’re supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case, a gang grooming case.

“These are people who are trying to get some vicarious thrill from street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”

He went on to criticise the response of senior Conservatives to Mr Musk’s comments, saying he was “concerned about where the Tory party is going on this”.

He said: “I think only a few months ago, it would have been unthinkable for things to have been said about Jess Phillips (that) were said recently without all political parties and the leader of the opposition calling it out in terms.”

Sir Keir also defended his own record on tackling grooming gangs, saying he had dealt with the problem “head-on” as director of public prosecutions.

He said: “I reopened cases that had been closed and supposedly finished, I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang – in the particular case it was in Rochdale, but it was the first of its kind, there were many that then followed that format.

“We changed, or I changed, the whole prosecution approach, because I wanted to challenge and did challenge the myths and stereotypes that were stopping those victims being heard.”

He added: “When I left office, we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record.

“Now that record is not secret. As a public servant, it’s there for all of you, for everybody to see.”

After Sir Keir’s speech, Mr Musk continued his social media barrage, suggesting the Prime Minister was afraid another inquiry into child sexual abuse would reveal failings from his time as director of public prosecutions.

He said: “Starmer was deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes. That’s what the inquiry would show.”

The row prompted by Mr Musk’s comments has also seen Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch call for a “full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal” and defend shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick after he tweeted that “importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women” had led to the scandal.

In a post on X responding to criticism of Mr Jenrick, Mrs Badenoch said: “We MUST be free to have tough conversations, no matter how difficult that may be to hear.”

Speaking on Monday, Sir Keir accused the Tories of “amplifying what the far-right is saying” on child sexual abuse after falling to act “for 14 long years”.

He added: “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. Now, so desperate for attention that they’re amplifying what the far-right is saying.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Sir Keir’s comments were “disgraceful”, accusing the Prime Minister of “smearing people who are concerned about rape gangs as jumping on a ‘far-right’ bandwagon, rather than facing up to his own record on this and reconsidering his refusal as Prime Minister to hold a full national inquiry”.

Mr Philp added: “As Kemi Badenoch said yesterday, a new inquiry must go beyond previous inquiries and focus specifically on the institutional and political failings that enabled the systematic and barbaric attacks to take place.

“If Keir Starmer can’t see why people across the UK are keen to have these questions answered and proper accountability for the victims of this heinous scandal, it just shows how our of touch he really is.”

Meanwhile, Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, called for the “full implementation” of her report’s recommendations.

Distancing herself from calls in Westminster for a new independent review, she said instead that the introduction of measures which she recommended two years ago was “critical”.

Describing Prof Jay’s report as “about as comprehensive as you could get”, Sir Keir agreed it was “time to get on with” implementing its recommendations, adding he was “slightly impatient” with people calling for another review “when they haven’t got on with implementing the very many reviews”.

He explicitly mentioned Mrs Badenoch’s call for another inquiry, saying: “She didn’t even implement the 20 recommendations of the Jay report … I think that shows perhaps where trying to get noticed is becoming more important than the issue itself.”