PM says ‘line has been crossed’ in row with Elon Musk over national grooming inquiry

By The Press Association6th January 2025News EnglandChild Abuse, Government / Politics, News England, Sexual Abuse, Top Stories

The Prime Minister remains embroiled in a row with billionaire Elon Musk over calls for a national investigation into child sexual abuse following his speech on Monday.

Responding to questions about a slew of social media posts from the Tesla and X owner, Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Musk and others of “spreading lies and misinformation”, adding they were “not interested in victims, they are interested in themselves”.

He also criticised comments in which Mr Musk described Home Office minister Jess Phillips as a “rape genocide apologist”, saying “a line has been crossed” leading to threats against the minister as a result of the “poison of the far-right”.

Earlier on Monday, Mr Musk had accused the Prime Minister of being “complicit in the crimes” of child sex offenders.

Mr Musk continued his attacks on Sir Keir following his speech, describing him as “utterly despicable” and “insane” and accusing the Prime Minister of refusing demands for a national inquiry because it would show he was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”.

The dispute follows weeks of hostile tweeting by Mr Musk, one of US President-elect Donald Trump’s top aides, in which he has criticised Sir Keir’s handling of the summer riots and expressed support for jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

On Monday morning, he posted a poll on his X account asking whether America should “liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”.

While Sir Keir declined to comment on Mr Musk’s poll, he strongly criticised “those who are cheerleading Tommy Robinson”, saying they were “not interested in justice” and “trying to get some vicarious thrill from street violence”.

He went on to defend his record on tackling grooming gangs as director of public prosecutions, saying when he left office “we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record”.

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.

Sir Keir accused the Tories of “amplifying what the far-right is saying” and “jumping on the bandwagon” to gain attention, saying Mrs Badenoch had failed to implement the recommendations of Professor Alexis Jay’s 2022 report on child sexual abuse.

But Conservative figures hit back, accusing the Prime Minister of “smearing people who are concerned about rape gangs”.

Mrs Badenoch said Sir Keir was “applying Labour smear tactics from 20 years ago” and was “a man of the past with no answers for today’s problems, let alone tomorrow’s”.

She added: “That such a huge scandal could occur should prompt soul-searching not ranting that those of us who care about it are ‘the far-right’.”

Mr Jenrick said the Prime Minister had “learned nothing” from a scandal in which “weak and cowardly local councillors and officials suppressed proper scrutiny”, adding: “Victims now demand a national inquiry.”

Sir Keir’s official spokesman acknowledged not all those calling for a new inquiry were aligned with the far-right, but continued to hit out at “certain politicians” who “had a chance to do something about this when they were in government”.

Prof Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, distanced herself from calls for a new national inquiry, saying it was “critical” that her own recommendations were fully implemented.

The Prime Minister has insisted he wants to see them implemented, but his spokesman would not place a deadline on when this could happen.

In the Commons, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government would begin implementing Prof Jay’s call for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by police officers, and people working with children.

The Home Secretary said: “I can confirm we will make it mandatory to report abuse and we will put the measures in the Crime and Policing Bill that will be put before Parliament this spring, making it an offence – with professional and criminal sanctions – to fail to report or cover up child sexual abuse.

“The protection of institutions must never be put before the protection of children.”