By Elizabeth Piper and Sachin Ravikumar
LONDON (Reuters) – Keir Starmer defended his work as Britain’s chief prosecutor on Monday, refusing to mention U.S. billionaire Elon Musk by name but addressing his criticism that, long before he became prime minister, he failed to prosecute gangs that were sexually abused girls.
Musk, a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, spent days posting messages on his social network X accusing Starmer of what he said was a failure to prosecute groups of men, mostly of South Asian descent, who raped young girls when he was director of public prosecutions ( DPT) between 2008 and 2013.
Starmer refused to respond to some of Musk’s other messages on X – including a poll asking whether the United States should free the UK from its “tyrannical government” – but strongly defended his record as DPP, saying he had overcome resistance to take on with the charges by reopening the cases.
“When I was the chief prosecutor for five years, I tackled this … and that’s why I reopened cases that were closed and supposedly closed. I launched the first major prosecution of the Asian groom gang … I changed the approach of the entire prosecutor’s office “, he said visibly angry at the press conference.
Those who spread lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in the victims, they are interested in themselves.
Starmer refrained from commenting on Musk’s increasingly critical comments about his tenure, but his impatience was clear when he grappled with allegations of cases involving gangs that systematically groomed and raped girls over the years, some of which coincided with his over time as DPP.
A 2014 investigation found that at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013.
FARAGE ALSO A MUSK TARGET
Saying he was making a more general point rather than directly addressing Musk’s comments, he also defended his Defense Secretary Jess Phillips, whom the US billionaire described in another message as a “rape genocide apologist”.
“Those who attack Jess Phillips, who I am proud to call my colleague and friend, are not protecting the victims,” he said.
“I’m ready to call this out for what it is… When the venom of the far right leads to serious threats… a line has been crossed in my book.”
Starmer wanted to discuss his plans to reduce waiting lists in Britain’s public health, promising to achieve the so-called 18-week treatment referral target by the end of this parliament, which is due to end with a new election in 2029.
He sees reforming the National Health Service as one way to win over voters critical of his first months in office, when he capped winter fuel payments for some pensioners and delivered a budget with the biggest tax increase since 1993.
But Musk’s comments about the gangs and calls from opposition conservatives for an investigation into the cases have once again overshadowed the prime minister’s attempts to turn the narrative around and set his government’s priorities.
Starmer is not Musk’s only focus. Musk said on Sunday that Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage should resign as leader of Britain’s right-wing Reform Party.
He also supported the Alternative for Germany party, an anti-immigrant, anti-Islam party that German security services labeled as right-wing extremist, ahead of national elections.
