Starmer is defending his record as a prosecutor after tech billionaire Musk attacked him and other Labor members over his handling of child rape cases.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has defended his record and harshly criticized the “spreading of lies” after Elon Musk launched days of hostile attacks over historic child rape crimes in northern England.
“Those who spread lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in the victims, but in themselves,” Starmer said on Monday, without mentioning US billionaire Musk by name.
He was speaking during an event related to the National Health Service in Surrey, United Kingdom, responding to a question about Musk’s recent attacks on his handling of child rape cases.
Musk has focused on historic scandals involving pedophile gangs that first emerged during Starmer’s tenure as director of public prosecutions, and has attacked him and other Labor figures over the issue in recent days.
Musk’s tirade, which also included calls for a new public inquiry into the scandal, has prompted some British opposition politicians to join the criticism and call for a new nationwide inquiry.
“We have seen this playbook many times, where intimidation and threats of violence are played up in the hope that the media will amplify it,” Starmer said.
The Prime Minister stressed that his Protection Minister Jess Phillips had received serious threats. Musk described her as a “rape genocide apologist” in a post on his social media platform X last week.
Starmer said he was making a more general statement rather than directly addressing Musk’s comments: “If the far right’s vitriol leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book a line has been crossed.”
“I enjoy the tension of politics, the intense debate we have to have, but it has to be based on facts and truth, not lies,” he added.
The issue has long been taken up by far-right figures, notably the imprisoned Tommy Robinson, one of Britain’s best-known far-right agitators, whom Musk has praised.
In one of his X-posts on Thursday, Musk claimed that Robinson was in prison “for telling the truth” and that “he should be released.”
A 2014 investigation found that at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013.
Musk appears to have taken a keen interest in the British political scene since the left-leaning Labor Party won a landslide election victory in July 2024, ending 14 years of Conservative rule.
