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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has hit back at Elon Musk over his comments about the UK’s handling of historic sexual abuse cases.
The billionaire, a confidante of US President-elect Donald Trump, has criticized Starmer and the government’s security minister Jess Phillips in a series of posts on X in recent days, mostly to complain about failures to hold perpetrators accountable.
Speaking in Epsom on Monday, Starmer said “a line has been crossed”, adding that “those who spread lies and misinformation as far as possible don’t care about the victims – they care about themselves”.
“We’ve seen this play out many times — stirring up intimidation and threats of violence, hoping the media will amplify it. . . “When the venom of the far right leads to serious threats against Jess Phillips and others, that’s when the line is crossed in my book,” Starmer said.
Musk, who has posted repeatedly about British politics since Labor was elected in July, recently described Phillips as a “rape genocide apologist” and “wicked witch”.
He has published dozens of times about the historic scandal involving grooming gangs in northern England.
Musk claimed on Friday that Starmer was “complicit in the rape of Britain”, referring to the prime minister’s previous role in overseeing the British prosecution when evidence of the gangs came to light more than a decade ago.
Allegations that Starmer bears some responsibility for failings to bring the groom gang to justice stem, in particular, from a case in 2009 when a decision was made not to prosecute alleged perpetrators in the town of Rochdale.
At the time, lawyers believed that the victim would not be reliable or credible.
Starmer had been director of public prosecutions for nine months when the decision was made, but there is no evidence to suggest he was aware of the details of the case at the time.
On Monday, Starmer said that as the chief prosecutor for five years he tackled the gangs directly and reopened various cases.
He also criticized those – including Musk – who supported far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, saying he was the man who went to jail for nearly collapsing a grooming case.
This is a developing story
