Nigel Farage defends Elon Musk over grooming gang post

Nigel Farage has defended Elon Musk after the billionaire attacked the UK government’s response to grooming gangs on social media platform X, which he owns.

In a series of posts over several days, Musk suggested Sir Keir Starmer had failed to prosecute gangs and said Home Office minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in jail”.

It came as the Home Office defended its decision to reject a request to lead a public inquiry into child sexual abuse in Oldham. The Conservatives and Reform UK have called for a wide-ranging national inquiry.

Asked about Musk’s comments on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Farage said he had used “very tough words” but that “free speech has come back” at X under his ownership.

Farage was also under pressure over his extensive ties to Musk, who was said to be considering donating money to his Reform Party.

Musk’s latest intervention in UK politics came after Phillips, a security minister at the Home Office, instructed Oldham Council to launch its own local investigation into historical child sex abuse in the town, similar to the established inquiry. Rochdale And telfordThe local authority had called for a government-led investigation.

The tech giant immediately accepted this decision taken in October and started heavily criticizing the British government online.

He suggested that Sir Keir had failed to properly prosecute rape gangs while he was Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), and has repeatedly shared posts from Reform and Conservative MPs calling for a national inquiry. .

Musk, who is a key adviser to incoming US President Donald Trump, called the prime minister a “two-tiered Kiir” and accused Phillips of being a “rape genocide supporter”.

Asked about the comments, Faraz said, “Tough things are said by both sides of the debate”.

He continued: “This guy is the richest man in the world, but at the same time, the fact that he’s now bought Twitter really gives us a space where we can have a proper open debate about a lot of things.. “We may find it offensive, but it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Earlier this week, Farage distanced himself Musk’s own support for Tommy Robinson – A far-right activist serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.

In an interview to be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday morning, Farage said the public was right to be angry about grooming gangs.

He added: “I think people ask themselves what happened to our country? How could this happen? Why did everyone want to hide it? Why was there no full public investigation?”

On Saturday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended Phillips as “fearless and formidable” and someone who for many years “has campaigned tirelessly for justice for people badly let down by endemic institutional failure”.

In a separate letter seen by the BBC, Phillips and Cooper wrote to the Conservatives explaining why they had asked Oldham Council to set up its own investigation rather than accept its request for a government-led investigation. The previous Conservative government rejected a similar request in 2022.

The letter explained that the local authority had already launched its own investigation, and said that the victims had said “loudly and clearly” that they wanted action to be taken.

He wrote, “The crimes committed by grooming gangs in Oldham were appalling.”

“The young girls were abused in the most brutal and sadistic manner. The victims and the community need to know that all steps have been taken to ensure justice is served and the children are properly protected in the future.”

He said he supported an independent review appointed by Mayor Andy Burnham, which covered historical abuse in Oldham and a new police investigation as well as other child protection work in Greater Manchester.

The letter highlighted that child sexual abuse investigationWhich published its final findings in 2022. It made clear that “abuse must be pursued and challenged everywhere without fear or favour” – whether in care homes, churches, homes or in grooming gangs.

Professor Alexis Jay, who led that inquiry, said in November that she felt “disappointed” that none of its 20 recommendations to tackle abuse had been implemented more than two years later.

On Friday, Health Secretary West Streeting said the government was “working” to implement the recommendations “in full” since taking office in July.

Several investigations into grooming gangs have been conducted in different parts of England, including Rotherham, Bristol, Cornwall and Derbyshire.

An investigation into abuse in Rotherham found that 1,400 children were sexually abused over a 16-year period, mainly by British Pakistani men.

An investigation in Telford found that 1,000 girls were abused over 40 years – and that some cases were not investigated because of “nervousness about race”.

Police data for 2023 shows that group-based child sexual abuse accounted for 3.7% of all sexual crimes against children reported to police.

According to the data, 26% of gang-based child sexual abuse cases occurred within families, while 17% involved child grooming groups.

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