U.K.’s Starmer Slams ‘Lies and Misinformation’ After Elon Musk Attacks

[ad_1] Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain on Monday fired again at Elon Musk after days of inflammatory social media posts by Mr. Musk, the billionaire proprietor of X, not directly accusing him and others of “spreading lies and misinformation” about victims of kid intercourse abuse gangs.

“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation, as far and as extensive as potential, will not be fascinated with victims,” Mr. Starmer informed reporters at an occasion south of London devoted to repairing the Nationwide Well being Service. “They’re fascinated with themselves.”

Mr. Starmer additionally defended himself in opposition to accusations by Mr. Musk that he didn't act shortly sufficient in opposition to gangs that abused and exploited younger women, when he was head of public prosecutions. An estimated 1,400 women had been exploited within the northern city of Rotherham by “grooming gangs” made up largely of British Pakistani males in instances that date again to earlier than 2010. Related gangs had been additionally discovered to be working in different cities and cities in England, together with Oldham and Telford.

The prime minister famous that when he was director of the Crown Prosecution Service, between 2008 and 2013, his workplace introduced the primary case in opposition to an Asian grooming gang and drafted new tips for the necessary reporting of kid intercourse offenses. He had tackled the scandal “head on,” he stated.

“There’s nothing secret about being director of public prosecutions,” Mr. Starmer stated. “Each single case I prosecuted went to court docket, was checked out by a choose.”

Mr. Musk has repeatedly asserted, with out proof, that Mr. Starmer had lined up the abuses. He additionally claimed that Jess Phillips, the Labour authorities’s underneath secretary for safeguarding and violence in opposition to ladies and women, was a “rape genocide apologist” as a result of she pushed again on requires a nationwide inquiry into youngster sexual exploitation in Oldham, a city close to Manchester.

Ms. Phillips, who has lengthy campaigned for girls’s rights, had as an alternative known as for an area investigation to be run by Oldham’s native authorities, quite than the central authorities.

Mr. Starmer staunchly defended Ms. Phillips in opposition to Mr. Musk and different on-line attackers, saying she had completed “a thousand instances greater than they’ve even dreamt about with regards to defending victims of sexual abuse.”

The web accusations “crossed a line,” Mr. Starmer stated, including, “As soon as we lose the anchor that fact issues, within the sturdy debate that we will need to have, then we're on a really slippery slope.”

Whereas Mr. Starmer’s tone was sturdy, he averted commenting on Mr. Musk’s broader motives in attacking Britain. Mr. Musk is an in depth ally of President-elect Donald J. Trump, with whom Mr. Starmer has tried to domesticate ties.

As an alternative, the prime minister criticized British politicians, together with Kemi Badenoch, the chief of the opposition Conservative Get together, as in search of to use the divisions created by Mr. Musk’s posts.

Ms. Badenoch on Thursday known as for a nationwide public inquiry into what she known as “the rape gangs scandal.” It has already been the topic of native and nationwide inquiries relationship again to 2014, and a nationwide inquiry into the broader drawback of kid sexual abuse concluded in 2022 after 325 days of public hearings.

“When politicians — and I imply politicians who sat in authorities for a few years — are informal about honesty, decency, fact and the rule of legislation,” Mr. Starmer stated, “calling for inquiries as a result of they wish to leap on a bandwagon of the far proper, that impacts politics, as a result of a strong debate can solely be primarily based on the true info.”

Earlier on Monday morning, Mr. Musk wrote “Jail for Starmer” in a single publish on X, and in one other, which he pinned to the highest of his profile, he invited his 210 million followers to vote on the assertion: “America ought to liberate the folks of Britain from their tyrannical authorities.”