A spat between Britain’s prime minister and the world’s richest man escalated on Monday over a decade-old child grooming scandal that threatens to derail Keir Starmer's efforts to focus his government on health reforms.
After a weekend of posts about the performance of the UK government, Elon Musk increased his attacks on Mr Starmer by describing him as being “utterly despicable” after the Labour leader accused the X owner of spreading “lies and misinformation”.
In a social media barrage, Mr Musk said the refusal to open a national inquiry into the historic sex abuse case was due to the risk of exposing Mr Starmer's failings when he was the country's top prosecutor, suggesting he was “deeply complicit” in the crimes of child sex offenders in exchange for votes, and in a separate post added: “Prison for Starmer.”
With Mr Musk a key influential figure in Donald Trump’s incoming administration and growing fears that tariffs could be imposed by the new US president, there are concerns that Mr Starmer’s stance might impact on policy after the January 20 presidential inauguration.
A speech on reform of the long waiting lists for operations in the National Health Service on Monday was meant to dominate the new year agenda but Mr Starmer was instead forced to defend his performance both as Prime Minister and in his previous role as director of public prosecutions (DPP).
The billionaire condemned Mr Starmer for failing to prosecute gangs that groomed and raped thousands of girls in a series of towns in England while he was DPP from 2008 to 2013. In fact, Mr Starmer instigated prosecutions against a predatory sex gang of largely Pakistani men who assaulted at least 1,400 children.
Clearly stung by the comments, Mr Starmer said at a press conference: “Those that are spreading lies and disinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in victims.”
He then seemed to infer that Mr Musk took to X, the social media platform he owns, in order to generate self-publicity. “Those who are desperate for attention, they are prepared to debase themselves and their country,” he said. “What I won’t tolerate is this discussion and debate based on lies and not calling it out.”
He defended his own record on tackling grooming gangs, saying he had dealt with the problem “head-on”.
He said: “I reopened cases that had been closed and supposedly finished, I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang... 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.”
Professor Alexis Jay, who chaired an 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”.
Musk tweets
Mr Starmer’s counter-attack, in which he said that people demanding a review were part of the far-right, brought a renewed onslaught. It took just over an hour for Mr Musk to respond to the comments by saying that Mr Starmer had ignored demands of victims for a prosecution.
“What an insane thing to say!” Mr Musk wrote. “The real reason is that it would show how Starmer repeatedly ignored the pleas of vast numbers of little girls and their parents, in order to secure political support. Starmer is utterly despicable.”
He went on to post a poll on X with the caption: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”
Europe responds
It now appears other European governments are collectively attempting to stand up against Mr Musk’s immense influence.
French President Emmanuel Macron accused Mr Musk of directly intervening in elections with his apparent support for the AfD, Germany’s far-right party that could become a substantial political force after next month’s election.
“Ten years ago, who could have imagined it if we had been told that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany,” he said.
Officials in the German government have also accused Mr Musk of trying to influence the election, but he is still scheduled to hold a live interview on X with AfD leader Alice Weidel on Thursday.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere also said that it was “worrying” that a person of such wealth and influence “involves himself so directly in the internal affairs of other countries”.
Crossed a line
The Tesla owner had spent the weekend posting a slew of comments about the Labour government, focused around Jess Phillips, a home office minister who had refused a full public inquiry into sex grooming allegations. The billionaire described her as a “rape genocide apologist” who should be jailed.
Responding to questions about the posts, Mr Starmer said “a line has been crossed” when politicians receive serious threats as a result of the “poison of the far-right”.
He also called out Mr Musk’s growing inclination to back far-right figures that include Tommy Robinson, who is serving a jail sentence for contempt of court in a case against a Syrian man accused of sex grooming. Mr Robinson has also been linked to the violence in Britain’s summer anti-immigration riots by sending allegedly inflammatory tweets while on holiday abroad.
“Those cheerleading Tommy Robinson are not interested in justice, they are supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a gang grooming case,” Mr Starmer said.
“These are people getting some sort of vicarious thrill from the street violence people like Tommy Robinson promote. Those that are attacking Jess Philips, who I’m proud to call colleague and a friend, are not protecting victims.”
Mr Starmer was speaking at a hospital where he launched a series of measures intended to bring down the waiting times for operations that have still not recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic.
That is part of a strategy to reset an administration that has plunged in popularity following its cut of winter fuel allowance for pensioners while raising taxes that has seen it plummet in the polls despite winning a landslide election victory in July.
