Elon Musk slams UK PM Keir Starmer on grooming gang scandal, here's what you need to know

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer

Elon Musk, American tech billionaire and a key ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, has triggered a political storm in the UK after he posted a series of posts targeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labour government for one of the most horrific episodes in recent British history: the grooming gang scandal.

The scandal, which came to public attention more than a decade ago, centers on the systematic abuse of young girls, primarily by men of Pakistani heritage, in parts of the UK. According to a 2014 report by Professor Alexis Jay, more than 1,400 children in South Yorkshire were victims of sexual abuse over 16 years. Many of the victims were abducted, raped, trafficked, and subjected to unimaginable violence, often with little to no intervention from authorities due to fears of being labelled racist.

The incident, which has long divided UK politics, was brought back to attention when Musk posted a series of messages on his social media site X, asked Keir Starmer to quit as he failed to prosecute gangs that systematically groomed and raped young girls during his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions (2008-2013). He also accused him of being "complicit in the rape of Britain".

The X owner further accused Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, of covering up for Starmer by rejecting a call for a public inquiry into alleged grooming scandals in Oldham. Musk said that Phillips' decision was politically motivated to shield Starmer, claiming it represented a "cover-up" of systemic failings, and called for her to be jailed.

In response, Starmer came to his defence on Monday and strongly condemned "lies and misinformation" being spread on social media. He defended his safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips. He targeted the Opposition Conservative Party for jumping on a “bandwagon of the far Right” while failing to take appropriate steps to protect victims while in government.

“Child sexual exploitation is utterly sickening, and for many years too many victims have been completely let down by perverse ideas about community relations. They have not been listened to, and they have not been heard," Starmer said in response to a media question about Musk’s online attacks.

"Those spreading lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in victims. Those attacking Jess Phillips, who I am proud to call a colleague and friend, are not protecting victims. Jess Phillips has done a thousand times more than they've ever dreamed about when it comes to protecting victims of sexual abuse. I'm prepared to call this out for what it is… the whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping the media will amplify it,” he said.

Starmer said "a line had been crossed" in the attacks on Phillips, who was referenced as a "rape genocide apologist" on X.

In the ongoing war of words, Musk hit back with another post on X labelling the UK PM as 'utterly despicable', claiming he was 'deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes.'

What does the data say?

According to a report by the Indian Express citing data released by the police, of the more than 1.15 lakh sexual offences against children reported in the UK in 2023, as many as 4,228 (3.7 per cent) were group-based crimes. Twenty-six per cent of these crimes took place within families, while 17 per cent involved groups, including grooming gangs. Schools, religious places, community centres, and other such institutions accounted for nine per cent of the group-based crimes.

During former prime minister Rishi Suank's tenure, a task force was set up to address the grooming gangs in April 2023, which arrested over 550 suspects in its first year of operation.

Grooming cases and their relation to ethnicity

Investigations in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale, and Telford revealed widespread child sexual exploitation, often perpetrated by men of predominantly Pakistani descent. Reports suggested systemic failings by local authorities and law enforcement, with officials accused of ignoring or downplaying abuse due to fears of being labelled racist.

On Wednesday, Musk tweeted about the Rotherham grooming scandal, adding, “So many people at all levels of power in the UK need to be in prison for this.” He later added, “Vote Reform. It’s the only hope.”

In a 2014 report, Professor Jay noted that council staffers “described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so”.

However, a report published by the UK’s Home Office stated that there was not enough data to conclude that a majority of group-based crime offenders were Asian or Pakistani. It found that the majority of perpetrators of sexual offences against children were white.

“Some studies suggest an over-representation of Black and Asian offenders relative to the demographics of national populations. However, it is not possible to conclude that this is representative of all group-based CSE (child sexual exploitation) offending,” the report said, as cited in an Indian Express report.

“This is due to issues such as data quality problems, the way the samples were selected in studies, and the potential for bias and inaccuracies in the way that ethnicity data is collected,” it added.