Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to protect victims of child sexual abuse and warned it won’t tolerate discussions on the issue that are based on lies.
Musk has claimed that Starmer had failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice when he was director of public prosecutions. He also suggested that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison” after she denied requests for a public inquiry in Oldham.
Starmer has defended his actions to tackle child sexual abuse by grooming gangs in the UK. Speaking to reporters on Monday, he said he had dealt with the problem “head-on” as director of public prosecutions.
“I reopened cases that had been closed and supposedly finished, I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang—in that particular case it was in Rochdale, but it was the first of its kind, there were many that then followed that format.
“We changed, or I changed, the whole prosecution approach, because I wanted to challenge and did challenge the myths and stereotypes that were stopping those victims being heard. When I left office, we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record.
“Now that record is not secret. As a public servant, it’s there for all of you, for everybody to see,” Starmer said.
When pressed on Musk’s comment regarding Phillips, Starmer said “a line has been crossed” and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to protecting victims, including of child sexual abuse.
Inquiries Into Historic Abuse
Historic child sexual abuse cases in Rochdale, Rotherham, and other areas of the UK have been investigated by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, led by Alexis Jay.Set up in 2015 under the Conservative government, the inquiry took evidence from 7,000 people over seven years and investigated the extent to which institutions failed to protect children from sexual abuse.
The report, published in October 2022, made 107 recommendations, including mandatory reporting of abuse and a national redress scheme for survivors.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting recently confirmed the government’s commitment to implementing the recommendations of Jay’s report in full.
While Labour believes that a locally-led inquiry into Oldham cases is more suitable than a national investigation, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has disagreed with the decision.
She called for a “full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal” and defended shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick after he wrote on social media platform X that “importing hundreds of thousands of people from alien cultures, who possess medieval attitudes towards women” had led to the scandal.
However, Starmer told reporters that he won’t tolerate “politicians jumping on the bandwagon, simply to get attention” when they failed to take action while in government.
“Now, so desperate for attention that they’re amplifying what the far-right is saying,” he added.
Support for Tommy Robinson
Starmer said child sexual exploitation is “utterly sickening,” adding that those who spread “lies and misinformation” are interested in themselves, not the victims.Robinson is serving an 18-month prison sentence for contempt of court that began in October. The political activist has admitted to repeating false allegations against Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi, in breach of an injunction.
Support for Robinson appears to have driven a wedge between Musk and the Reform Party, led by Nigel Farage.
Farage has backed Musk’s comments on the UK government’s handling of grooming gangs, but distanced himself the tycoon’s support for Robinson, saying he was “not what we need.”
