Sir Keir Starmer accused people of “spreading lies” about recruitment gangs and said they are not interested in the victims after Elon Musk accused him of being “complicit” in the scandal.
“Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as widely as possible are not interested in the victims. “They are interested in themselves,” Sir Keir said.
“I enjoy the momentum of politics, the robust debate that we need to have. But that must be based on facts and truths, not lies. Not those who are so desperate for attention that they are willing to degrade themselves and their country.”
He said he would not comment on allegations from specific people but was responding to a question about Elon Musk by claiming that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in jail” and calling her a “rape genocide apologist” for rejecting a call for a national inquiry into the historical grooming of children in Oldham.
He accused the Conservatives of “amplifying what the far right says” about child sexual abuse after failing to act “for 14 long years.”
Sir Keir said his record as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) shows how he changed “the whole approach” towards victims of child sexual abuse which prevented them from being heard, and had the highest number of prosecuted cases on record.
He said he reopened cases he felt were not properly investigated and oversaw the first prosecution of an Asian grooming gang in Rochdale.
Sir Keir also said he called for mandatory reporting but the Conservatives did not do so.
The Prime Minister said Jess Phillips has done “a thousand times more” to protect victims of sexual abuse than her critics “had even dreamed of”.
This is the first time Sir Keir has responded directly to a barrage of accusations from Musk over the past week.
Musk has been using X, the social media platform he owns, to attack Sir Keir and Ms Phillips after it emerged last week that she said Oldham Council should carry out its own investigation.
The billionaire accused the Prime Minister of being “complicit” as he was DPP at the time when gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani descent, were exploiting mainly white girls, as young as 11, in several cities across the UK. .
The world’s richest man has said Sir Keir should be in prison and on Monday morning published a poll asking
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told Sky Information with Trevor Phillips on Sunday morning. He “wasn’t interested.” on what Musk had to say about the grooming scandal.
He said Musk’s comments were “somewhat ridiculous”, were “misinformed” and “not fair” to the records of Sir Keir and Phillips.
Other political parties have also commented, with Reform deputy leader Richard Tice telling Trevor Phillips that Musk is “one of the greatest businessmen in history” and saying there was a “deliberate cover-up” of the gang scandal. of grooming for fear of appearing racist.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a full national inquiry into the “rape gang scandal” as she said “no one in authority has connected the dots” between the systematic rape of young women by organized gangs across the country. United Kingdom.
Sir Keir added: “What I will not tolerate is politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to attract attention.
“When those politicians were in government for 14 long years tweeting, talking, but doing nothing about it, now they are so desperate for attention. But they are amplifying what the extreme right says.”
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