Starmer attacks grooming gangs for spreading ‘lies’

The Prime Minister has attacked politicians and activists who “spread lies and misinformation” over grooming gangs.

It comes after multi-billionaire Elon Musk accused Sir Keir Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” during his tenure as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by failing to tackle grooming gangs.

Senior Conservative and Reform UK MPs have also spent the week calling for a national inquiry into child sexual abuse.

But Sir Keir said: “Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far as possible have no interest in the victims, they are interested in themselves.”

He said the online debate “crossed a line”, resulting in threats against MPs, including Security Minister Jess Phillips.

Sir Keir accused the Tories of “jumping on a bandwagon” to attract attention.

Conservative MPs are “exaggerating what the far-right is saying” on child sexual abuse after failing to act for 14 years, he said.

Describing child sexual abuse as “absolutely disgusting”, Sir Keir defended his record in office as DPP – saying he dealt with the issue “head on”.

Sir Keir did not name any of the people he believed were spreading lies, but a number of questions were asked about Musk following his comments.

Last week, the tech-entrepreneur has used his platform on his social media site X to attack the Labor government on the issue.

Musk accused Phillips of being “rape-genocide advocate” and called for him and Sir Keir to be jailed.

On Monday, Musk launched a poll asking X users to vote on whether “the US should free the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”.