A raft of erratic social media posts by the billionaire tech mogul has put a decades-long child sexual abuse scandal back under the political spotlight.
Elon Musk has reignited a political debate in the UK around the crimes of gangs of men who systemically groomed and raped children in English towns over several decades.
In a flurry of posts on his social platform X, the billionaire has taken aim at senior UK Labour figures, claiming prime minister Keir Starmer was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes.”
He also called safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and called for her to be imprisoned.
Musk’s latest incursion into British political life has sparked outrage among Labour figures, with the prime minister condemning “those that are spreading lies and misinformation,” adding that they are not interested in victims but “in themselves”.
It follows Musk’s unexpected call for his close ally Nigel Farage to step down as the leader of the far-right Reform UK party, and his endorsement of activist Tommy Robinson, who is serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.
What is the grooming gangs scandal?
The so-called grooming gangs scandal relates to a series of high-profile cases which found that gangs of men – mainly of Pakistani descent – had groomed, drugged and raped girls from a disadvantaged background in English towns between the 1980s and the early 2010s.
The most known cases occurred in the northern English towns of Rotherham, Rochdale and Oldham.
A report by Professor Alexis Jay in 2014 estimated that some 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by men of Pakistani descent.
That report identifies failings by authorities and the police, and also cites local authority officials describing their “nervousness” at identifying the “ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist.”
In 2016, Jay became chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), and concluded in a 2022 report that such abuse by organise was “endemic” across England and Wales and setting out 20 recommended actions.
Why has Musk interfered now?
Musk has waded into the debate after it emerged that the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, rejected a request for a government-led inquiry into such cases in the town of Oldham, arguing the local council should decide to commission an inquiry instead.
Professor Jay and the ex-chief prosecutor responsible for prosecuting the Rotherham perpetrators, Nazir Afzal, have since rejected calls for a fresh enquiry, saying previous recommendations need to be acted upon.
Victims “want action” rather than another national inquiry, Jay told the BBC.
Opposition figures, including Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, have echoed Musk’s calls for a national inquiry. Labour figures have pointed to the fact that none of the recommendations made in Professor Jay’s previous inquiry were implemented by consecutive Conservative governments.
Musk has also claimed “hundreds of thousands” of girls were “mercilessly targeted.” Although it is unclear how many victims were targeted by the gangs, more than 7,000 victims and survivors gave evidence to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse that terminated in 2022, and a special taskforce set up in 2023 has provided support to some 4,000 victims.
How is Keir Starmer involved?
Between 2008 and 2013, the prime minister served as the head of the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS), which oversees criminal prosecutions in England and Wales.
Nine months after his appointment, the CPS decided not to prosecute alleged members of a grooming gang in Rochdale, after lawyers advised the main victim was “unreliable.”
That decision was then overturned by Nazir Afzal after he was named chief prosecutor for the north-west of England two years later in 2011.
Afzal’s efforts saw nine men convicted in Rochdale.
While the CPS was criticised for their initial inability to prosecute, Starmer has never been accused of any responsibility, and Afzal has commended him for his support in bringing perpetrators to account.
Afzal is reported to have previously said: “Keir was 100 per cent behind the decision to publicly admit that we had got it wrong in the past.”
“Keir left in 2013, the CPS having gone from being dire at doing sex-abuse cases to having the highest conviction rate in our history,” Afzal also said, according to reporting by the Guardian and the Financial Times.
Starmer has defended his record by pointing out that he reopened child abuse cases that had been closed, brought the first ever prosecution of a grooming gang and changed CPS guidance to facilitate prosecution.
Professor Jay’s 2014 report on the Rotherham case points out that in October 2013, Starmer revised the CPS guidance on child sexual exploitation “to set out a clear, agreed approach which prosecutors would take to tackle cases of child sexual abuse.”
This included a decision to remove behaviours thought to undermine the reliability of young victims and previously used to block prosecution, including the way they dressed or acted, whether they used alcohol or drugs and whether they immediately complained.
Where else has Musk waded into British and European politics?
Musk’s latest comments follow his recent endorsement of anti-Islam activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, more commonly known as Tommy Robinson, who is currently serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.
The Trump ally recently surprisingly U-turned on his previous support for Nigel Farage, the leader of the far-right Reform UK, calling for his resignation.
“Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” Musk wrote on X.
It follows weeks of reports Musk was planning a sizeable donation to Reform’s campaign, mooted to be to the tune of $100 million.
It’s prompted calls on the government to revise the rules around campaign funding.
A war of words also erupted between Starmer and Musk over riots that gripped the UK last summer following the murder of three young girls at a dance studio in Southport. Musk was accused of further stoking tensions, and of failing to prevent the spread of disinformation about the attacks on his platform X.
Musk has also endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of February’s German federal elections.
