The confrontation between U.Ok. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and X boss Elon Musk reveals no indicators of slowing down.

On Monday, Starmer lastly addressed Musk’s criticism of his current dealing with of the U.Ok.’s historic rape gang disaster, wherein grooming gangs, reportedly made up predominantly of males of Pakistani descent, focused younger women. Throughout a press convention, Starmer stated: “These which are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as broad as attainable are usually not keen on victims. They’re keen on themselves.”

Musk responded on X, posting: “What an insane factor to say! The true motive [the government is not holding an inquiry into the scandal] is that it might present how Starmer repeatedly ignored the pleas of huge numbers of little women and their dad and mom, with a purpose to safe political assist. Starmer is totally despicable.”

The brouhaha kicked off final week after the U.Ok.’s house workplace minister Jess Phillips denied a request to carry a authorities inquiry into the historic systemic abuse of younger ladies by the gangs throughout U.Ok. cities together with Rotherham, Oldham, Rochdale and Bristol. A earlier inquiry discovered that in Rotherham alone over 1,400 kids had been sexually abused over a 16-year interval, largely by British Pakistani males, based on the BBC.

Whereas there have been quite a lot of native inquiries, Oldham Council not too long ago requested a nationwide one led by the federal government. It was this that Phillips rebuffed final week.

Her denial was rapidly picked up by Musk, who waded into the controversy, tweeting: “She deserves to be in jail.”

Musk continued to put up in regards to the scandal over the weekend, with tweets and retweets starting from court docket transcripts from among the sexual abuse instances to assist for British far-right agitator Tommy Robinson. He additionally repeatedly criticized Starmer and the U.Ok. authorities.

On Monday morning Starmer was requested about Musk, and responded: “On the query of Elon Musk. Look, I believe most individuals are extra keen on what’s going to occur to the NHS [National Health Service], frankly, than what’s occurring on Twitter.”

Starmer then defended his file on the problem, together with his time as chief prosecutor when, he stated: “I introduced the primary main prosecution of an Asian grooming gang, within the specific case it was in Rochdale, nevertheless it was the primary of its sort….after I left workplace, we had the best variety of baby sexual abuse instances being prosecuted on file.”

He added: “These which are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as broad as attainable are usually not keen on victims. They’re keen on themselves. Those that are cheerleading Tommy Robinson aren’t keen on justice. They’re supporting a person who went to jail for practically collapsing a grooming case, a gang grooming case. These are people who find themselves attempting to get some form of vicarious thrill from road violence that folks like Tommy Robinson promote. And people attacking Jess Phillips, who I’m proud to name a colleague and a buddy, are usually not defending victims. Jess Phillips has executed a thousand occasions greater than they’ve even dreamt about on the subject of defending victims of sexual abuse all through her whole profession. And so simply as I took on the felony justice system and the establishments after I was chief prosecutor, I’m ready to name out this for what it’s.”

“I benefit from the reduce and thrust of politics, the sturdy debate that we will need to have, however that’s bought to be primarily based on info and fact, not on lies,” Starmer continued. “Not on those that are so determined for consideration that they’re ready to debase themselves and their nation. So this authorities will get on with the job of defending victims, together with baby sexual abuse, necessary reporting, accelerating the processes. However what I received’t tolerate is that this dialogue and debate primarily based on lies with out calling it out.”

Starmer’s phrases haven’t cowed Musk, nonetheless, who continued to tweet in regards to the scandal all through Monday. He at the moment has a ballot operating on his X profile web page asking “America ought to liberate the folks of Britain from their tyrannical authorities.” At time of publication, over 60% of respondents had voted “Sure.”