UK minister faults Musk’s intervention in politics

A senior British government minister, Jess Phillips, on Friday berated Elon Musk’s latest intervention in the country’s politics, saying it was misjudged and certainly misinformed

Musk had earlier alleged that Prime Minister Keir Starmer failed to bring rape gangs to justice when he was Director of Public Prosecutions.

In a string of posts on his X platform, the tech billionaire also suggested that Jess Phillips, Minister for the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls, deserves to be in prison for refusing a request for a national public inquiry into a child sexual exploitation scandal in the northern English city of Oldham.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said that Musk’s comments were wide of the mark, stating that the government takes child sexual exploitation incredibly seriously.

“Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I think, are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we’re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries tackle this serious issue.

“So if he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we’d welcome that,” he added.

The widespread abuse of girls in a number of English towns and cities, including Rochdale, Rotherham, and Oldham, which emerged more than a decade ago, has long stirred controversy.

A series of court cases eventually led to the convictions of dozens of men, mostly of South Asian Muslim origin. The victims were vulnerable, mostly white girls.

Subsequent reports into how police and social workers failed to halt the abuse found that officials, in some cases, turned a blind eye to avoid appearing racist.

The scandals have been seized upon by far-right figures, in particular Tommy Robinson, a prominent extremist agitator.

Accused of helping fuel anti-immigration riots last summer, Robinson was imprisoned in October after he admitted committing contempt of court over a long-running libel case involving a Syrian refugee.

In one of his X posts on Thursday, Musk claimed that Robinson was in prison for telling the truth and that he should be freed.

Most of Musk’s messages focused on Robinson’s long-time highlighting of historical scandals involving alleged paedophile grooming gangs in some English cities.