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The Conservatives have called for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation, after Elon Musk accused Sir Keir Starmer of failing to bring rape gangs to justice when he was head of the prosecution service more than a decade ago.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said on Thursday that a full-blown probe was “long overdue” into the grooming scandals in the north of England that began to be uncovered in 2013.
“Trials have taken place all over the country in recent years but no one in authority has joined the dots,” Badenoch said on X, adding that 2025 must be the year that “victims start to get justice”.
Tory frontbenchers Chris Philp and Alicia Kearns later wrote to home secretary Yvette Cooper demanding a national inquiry. But they did not comment on why the Conservatives had not set up such a probe while in government.
A Labour spokesperson said the party had already supported a national overarching inquiry into child abuse that reported in 2022, and local independent inquiries in specific towns.
“This government is working urgently to strengthen the law so that these crimes are properly reported and investigated,” the spokesperson added.
The spat erupted after Musk launched inflammatory claims against Starmer over his role in prosecuting perpetrators in the scandal.
The technology billionaire has increasingly criticised the British government in recent months, comparing it to Joseph Stalin’s Russia. He has endorsed Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and last month backed Germany’s far-right AfD.
On Thursday, Musk wrote on X, the social media site he owns: “In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service’s approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008-2013.”
However, it was Starmer, while director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013, who began the prosecutions of the Rochdale grooming gang during his final year in post, shortly after the scandal in the Greater Manchester town became the first to come to light.
In addition, Starmer launched an overhaul of the way the CPS investigates sexual abuse to ensure more perpetrators are brought to justice. The reforms also paved the way for historic cases to be reviewed.
Musk claimed safeguarding minister Jess Phillips was “refusing to investigate the rape gangs” in order to protect Starmer, following a report this week that the government had rejected Oldham Council’s request for a Home Office-led inquiry into historic child sex abuse in the town.
Phillips said in a letter to the local authority that she believed it was for the council itself to “decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the government to intervene”, according to GB News.
Officials confirmed it was the government’s view that local authorities are best placed to commission local inquiries, citing the precedent for probes in Rotherham and Telford, other towns blighted by grooming gang-related child sex abuse.
In addition the watchdog with responsibility for the inspection of police forces in England and Wales, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, is carrying out an independent review into child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester, including the conduct of the police and 10 councils in handling such cases.
The SpaceX founder also called for far-right activist Tommy Robinson — founder of the English Defence League and a former member of the British National party — to be released from jail, and reposted messages claiming that he was a “political prisoner”.
Robinson, a convicted fraudster whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed for 18 months in October after admitting contempt of court by repeating false claims about a Syrian refugee.
Downing Street declined to comment on Musk’s latest outburst on Thursday, with one official saying the prime minister was focused on governing.
It was the most recent in a string of personal attacks by the billionaire against Starmer, after labelling him “two tier Keir” during the summer riots last year, endorsing a theory popular online that right-wing activists are treated more harshly by the police than people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK.
The Home Office said: “No child should ever suffer sexual abuse or exploitation. Everyone who is responsible for children’s welfare must learn from past mistakes and do everything possible to prevent future failures.”
