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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has hit back at Elon Musk over his comments on the UK’s handling of historic sex abuse cases.
The billionaire confidant of US president-elect Donald Trump has criticised Starmer and government safeguarding minister Jess Phillips in a series of posts on X in recent days, mainly to complain about failures in holding perpetrators to account.
In a speech in Epsom, Surrey, on Monday, Starmer said that “a line has been crossed”, adding that “those that are spreading lies and disinformation as far and as wide as possible, they’re not interested in victims — they are interested in themselves”.
“We have seen this playbook many times — whipping up of intimidation and of threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it . . . When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book a line has been crossed,” Starmer said.
Musk who has repeatedly posted about UK politics since Labour was elected in July, has recently described Phillips as a “rape genocide apologist” and a “wicked witch”.
He has posted dozens of times about a historic scandal involving sexual grooming gangs in the north of England.
On Friday, Musk claimed Starmer was “complicit in the rape of Britain”, in reference to the prime minister’s previous role overseeing the UK’s prosecution office when evidence of the gangs came to light more than a decade ago.
Allegations that Starmer bears some responsibility for failings in bringing the grooming gangs to justice stem, in particular, from a case in 2009 when a decision was taken not to prosecute alleged perpetrators in the town of Rochdale.
Lawyers at the time believed the victim would not come across as reliable or credible.
Starmer had been director of public prosecutions for nine months when the decision was taken, but there is no evidence to suggest he was made aware of the details of the case at the time.
Starmer said on Monday that as chief prosecutor for five years he tackled the gangs head-on and reopened various cases.
He also criticised those — including Musk — who have supported far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, saying he was a man who went to prison for almost collapsing a grooming case.
This is a developing story
