Elon Musk’s assault on Keir Starmer  and Jess Phillips over grooming gangs branded ‘ridiculous and ill-informed’ by high Labour minister

Elon Musk‘s attack on Sir Keir Starmer over a lack of action to tackle grooming gangs is ‘ridiculous and ill-informed’ a senior Labour minister said today. 

Wes Streeting took aim at the X owner and senior Donald Trump adviser over his social media barrage against the Prime Minister over sex crimes carried out by British Asian men.

Musk, the world’s richest man, also suggested the safeguarding minister ‘deserves to be in prison’ for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.

However Mr Streeting led a fightback by Labour over an issue that has seen the Conservatives and Reform line up alongside Mr Musk to demand a fresh investigation. 

The health Secretary told Sky News‘ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that ministers would back a local probe in Oldham, but there was no need for a new national inquiry, as there has already been one. 

‘The other thing I would say about the Prime Minister and jess Phillips is that these are two politicians who have one thing in particular in common: before they came into politics they had an actual record of banging up rapists, paedophiles and sex offenders.

‘So they don’t need lectures from anyone else, particularly the Conservatives, about their record. They have got a very strong one actually.’

Asked specifically about Mr Musk’s intervention from the United States, he added: ‘It is a ridiculous thing to say, it is ill-informed, it is not fair on either of their records.

‘I’m not interested in what he’s got to say about this. I’m interested in what we’re doing as a Government.’

Later, speaking to the BBC he labelled Mr Musk’s attack ‘a disgraceful smear’. 

Meanwhile Reform leader Nigel Farage refused to criticise Mr Musk for calling Ms Phillips a rape genocide apologist’ and a ‘wicked witch’ and accusing the PM of being ‘complicit in the rape of Britain’.

He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that Mr Musk ‘may well’ give his party money, and claimed his support make it ‘look cool’. 

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has also defended Jess Phillips as a ‘fearless and formidable’ advocate for sexual abuse victims after Mr Musk criticised the safeguarding minister.

Mr Musk also attacked Sir Keir Starmer, saying the Prime Minister failed to bring ‘rape gangs’ to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.

Ms Cooper said Ms Phillips had ‘campaigned tirelessly’ on behalf of those that had been failed by institutions.

‘Jess Phillips has dedicated her career to tackling sexual violence and abuse and to being a voice for victims and survivors of the most terrible crimes, including child sexual abuse,’ she said.

‘From setting up the first ever child sexual exploitation service in the Black Country and supporting survivors in Telford, Jess has been a fearless and formidable advocate for victims and survivors.

‘She has worked with whistleblowers and campaigned tirelessly for justice for those badly let down by endemic institutional failure.’

As a Home Office minister, Ms Phillips has put the experience of grooming and trafficking victims ‘at the heart’ of the department’s work on modern slavery and launched a national scheme so police and staff work together to spot when hotels are used as a site of child sexual exploitation, Ms Cooper said.

Ms Cooper said the Birmingham Yardley MP would keep working on implementing the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, which published its final report in 2022.

Led by Professor Alexis Jay, the inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups following multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010-2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol.

Last year, Ms Phillips described X, formerly Twitter, as a ‘place of misery’ and said she planned to use the site less.

Its owner Mr Musk, a key member of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle, shared and reacted to a series of tweets relating to grooming in the UK earlier this week.

The Tesla boss described the Prime Minister as ‘two-tier Keir’, claiming there was ‘no justice for severe, violent crimes but prison for social media posts’ in the UK.

He also said Sir Keir failed to bring ‘rape gangs’ to justice when he was director of public prosecutions (DPP) between 2008 and 2013.

Senior Tories including Opposition leader Kemi Badenoch have since sought to put pressure on the Government over grooming gangs.

In 2022, the then-Conservative government also refused a request for a public inquiry into events in Oldham.

Mrs Badenoch repeated her call for an inquiry in the Mail on Sunday, saying ‘some action was taken under the previous Tory government, but not enough’.

‘We still need to know the extent to which institutions such as the police, local government and social services are compromised by political correctness, and even self interest,’ she wrote.

‘Only then can we have any hope of preventing this scale of abuse from happening again.

‘We have failed to get to the bottom of how national-scale child sexual abuse happens, for fear of causing offence.’

Reform UK said on Saturday it would launch a national inquiry into grooming gangs if elected.

Chairman Zia Yusuf told supporters at a conference in Chelmsford, Essex, that his party would launch an independent inquiry that would ‘leave no stone unturned’.

Party leader Nigel Farage said a ‘full, open, national inquiry’ was needed, so that everyone in the country ‘knows the truth’ and understands that ‘mass open-door immigration without assimilation is a complete cultural disaster for our country’.

Whistleblower Maggie Oliver, a former detective who resigned from Greater Manchester Police in 2012, said Sir Keir is ‘perhaps as guilty as anyone’ over the failure to bring about change but added that she believed those who ‘pop up when this hits the headlines’ would not do so either.

Ms Oliver said on X that inquiries into what happened have led ‘absolutely nowhere’ and ‘wasted’ millions of pounds, adding that those leading them ‘have always wanted to cover up the truth’.

She went on: ‘I firmly believe we need totally independent people who will ensure it’s not just another attempt to delay and hide the truth. Radical change and overhaul of all our public bodies.’

‘Bring in criminal accountability for all our senior police and public officials who have turned a blind eye.’

She said she felt the Conservatives and Labour were equally to blame and that Sir Keir as former DPP is ‘perhaps as guilty as anyone I know in where we find ourselves today’.

‘We all know what’s going on but I don’t trust a single one of those who to date have been entrusted with keeping our children safe and prosecuting serial rapists. They’ve failed. Repeatedly. Knowingly. Criminally.’