Elon Musk informed to ‘give attention to USA’ after hurling abuse at Keir Starmer over grooming gangs

Elon Musk should “focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic” instead of firing off criticisms at Keir Starmer, a senior minister has said.

Andrew Gwynne hit back at the tech billionaire over his increasingly wild interventions in British politics, which included calling on the King to dissolve Parliament. It comes after a furious row erupted when Mr Musk started hurling abuse at the UK Government over the scandal of grooming gangs in northern towns in England.

In posts on his X platform, he said Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison” for rejecting a request by Oldham Council for the Home Office to manage an inquiry into child sex trafficking rings in the UK. He also called for the release of imprisoned far-right activist Tommy Robinson.

The row marks an escalation in the Tesla chief’s war against Mr Starmer and the UK Government, which included a barrage of criticism over the handling of the summer riots.

Mr Musk, who will play a key role in Donald Trump’s administration, seized on a report by GB News that Ms Phillips had told Oldham Council in October that it should commission its own inquiry into historical abuse of children. She said it should be led locally, pointing to council-run inquiries in Rotherham and Telford. The Tories gave similar responses to councillors in Telford and Oldham when in Government.

There has already been a national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay, which concluded in 2022. However Prof Jay said in November she felt “frustrated” that none of its 20 recommendations to tackle abuse had been implemented more than two years later.

There have also been probes into Greater Manchester Police’s handling of historical child sex abuse cases in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale.

Mr Gwynne told LBC: “Elon Musk is an American citizen and perhaps ought to focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic. But look, the grooming issue is a very serious issue. We’ve already had inquiries into Telford, into Rotherham, we’ve had a local inquiry commissioned by Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, into the situation here in Greater Manchester which includes Oldham.

“We’ve had the national child sexual exploitation inquiry in 2022 which the Government is seriously considering, there is a long list of recommendations that was made. There comes a point where we don’t need more inquiries, and had Elon Musk really paid attention to what’s been going on in this country, he might have recognised that there have already been inquiries.

“What we need is justice for the victims, and we need to make sure that the criminal justice system follows up and make sure that these atrocious things are never able to happen again.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Mr Musk’s attacks on the UK Government’s handling of child grooming gangs are “misjudged and certainly misinformed” – but asked him to work with Government. He said: “This Government takes the issue of child sexual exploitation incredibly seriously.

“We’ve seen harrowing reports and experiences of abuse of victims who’ve been brave enough to come forward and speak up about the appalling crimes that they’ve been subjected to. We’ve also seen those brave whistleblowers who’ve been willing to speak up, and frankly, we’ve seen some shocking examples of how political correctness was able to get in the way of going after perpetrators of these serious crimes.

“We’re not going to let that happen. This Government is committed to implementing the recommendations of the inquiry into child sexual abuse. We will do that in full. We will get on with the job.

“Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we’re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue. So if he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we’d welcome that.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch yesterday called for a full national public inquiry into the UK’s “rape gangs scandal” – despite her own party’s failure to do so.

But Reform UK leader Nigel Farage hit back at her, saying : “Talk is cheap. The Conservatives had 14 years in government to launch an inquiry. The establishment has failed the victims of grooming gangs on every level.”