Elon Musk says UK PM Keir Starmer complicit in grooming gangs scandal
Elon Musk has publicly accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of being “complicit” in grooming gangs that systematically targeted vulnerable girls. He also condemned Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips for rejecting calls to hold a national inquiry, describing her as a “rape genocide apologist.”
Musk’s claims emerged after he posted multiple messages on his social media platform, X, suggesting that Starmer failed to act against perpetrators who groomed and abused children when he served as director of public prosecutions.
He pointed to past cases in Rochdale and Oldham, where some of the perpetrators eventually convicted. According to statements Musk shared, he believes Starmer allowed systemic failures to persist despite being in a position of authority.
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Starmer is scheduled to address these accusations during a press conference Monday, where he plans to discuss his approach to tackling NHS waiting lists, according to The Times.
Labour Party sources say he intends to describe the steps he took to change prosecution standards, referring to reforms introduced in 2013 to handle child abuse cases more effectively, including forming a national network of specialist prosecutors and lowering the threshold for revisiting dropped cases.
Critics in the Conservative Party, however, maintain that a public inquiry is still needed to examine the actions — or inactions — of the Crown Prosecution Service in reports related to child sexual exploitation during Starmer’s tenure.
Phillips, who has also been singled out by Musk, was criticized for advising a local council that it should launch its own inquiry rather than wait for a national investigation into historical child sexual abuse in Oldham.
Musk contends her stance is an attempt to conceal or minimize the scale of the issue, but government officials have defended her record.
Meanwhile, an X user, who identifies himself as “The Composite Guy,” posted a list of “Muslim grooming gangs” that have been found in “over 50 cities and towns in the U.K.”
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, refuted the allegations against Starmer and Phillips on national television, as reported by The Times of India. He called Musk’s statements a “disgraceful smear” of individuals who spent their careers prosecuting abusers and supporting survivors.
Streeting added that Musk’s position fails to account for the wider context of investigations carried out since Starmer’s leadership of the Crown Prosecution Service ended. The health secretary invited Musk to collaborate with law enforcement agencies to address online threats, suggesting that a major social media platform could help detect and prevent grooming.
Conservative politicians have also weighed in.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, expressed disapproval of Musk’s language about Phillips but agreed that the issue of grooming gangs deserves continued attention.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, defended Musk’s right to question public figures, stating that such confrontations are not unusual in political discourse. However, within hours of defending Farage, Musk declared that Farage was no longer fit to lead Reform UK.
The revelations were originally brought to light by a 2011 Times investigation into organized sexual exploitation in towns across northern England. It exposed reluctance among child protection authorities to tackle offending due to fears of triggering racial tensions, as many perpetrators were of Pakistani origin.
In Rotherham alone, at least 1,400 children were abused between 1997 and 2013, according to the 2014 Jay report. Subsequent probes in Rochdale, Derbyshire and other areas revealed a pattern of systematic failures, sometimes involving local law enforcement and social services.
Meanwhile, Labour declined to launch a public inquiry into historical sexual abuse by gangs in Oldham last week, maintaining that this decision should be made by the local council, The Telegraph reported. Around the same time, the Home Office came under pressure from former Home Secretary Suella Braverman to adopt a “zero tolerance approach” to the deportation of foreign offenders convicted of child sex crimes, including those involved in widely reported cases.
One offender, Qari Abdul Rauf, was among nine men found guilty in 2012 of sex offences against vulnerable girls in Rochdale. He was sentenced to six years in prison, released after about half his term, and ordered to be deported by then Home Secretary Theresa May.
However, he remained in Rochdale as of 2024, with reports suggesting Pakistan refused to accept him.
Starmer, who was DPP between 2008 and 2013, claimed in previous interviews that he supported measures to pursue charges against grooming gangs. Nazir Afzal, then chief crown prosecutor for northwest England, recalled that Starmer quickly endorsed a process to examine cases that had been dropped, leading to convictions of several offenders in Rochdale and Oldham.
However, detractors point to a specific case in 2009 where a teenage girl’s complaint was set aside due to questions about her credibility, allowing alleged abusers to continue. Starmer’s office maintains that this case never reached him at the time.
