'A Line Has Been Crossed': Keir Starmer Launches Scathing Attack On Elon Musk
Keir Starmer launched a withering attack on X tycoon Elon Musk this morning after the world’s richest man slammed his minister Jess Phillips.
Without explicitly naming Musk, Starmer said “a line has been crossed” after Phillips faced intense abuse from the Donald Trump ally last week.
The X CEO called Labour’s safeguarding minister “an evil witch,” a “rape genocide apologist who should be put in jail”.
It came after Phillips reportedlyrejected calls for a public inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham, and said such a decision was up to the local council.
The world’s richest man also criticised Starmer for supposedly not prosecuting grooming gangs when he was the director of public prosecutions, and said he should “be in prison”.
Asked for his response to Musk’s insults on Monday, Starmer said: “On Elon Musk, I think most people are more interested in what is going to happen to the NHS, frankly, than what is happening on Twitter [now known as X].”
However, he said it was important to discuss the issues raised in the spat.
He continued: “Child sexual exploitation is utterly sickening, utterly sickening, and for many many years, too many victims have been completely let down, let down by perverse ideas about community relations, or by ideas that institutions should be protected above all else.
“They’ve not been listened to and they’ve not been heard.
“When I was chief prosecutor for five years, I tackled that head on, because I could see what was happening.
“That’s why I reopened cases which had been closed and supposedly finished, I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang.”
He continued: “I changed the whole prosecution approach because I wanted to challenge, and did challenge, the myths and stereotypes which were stopping those victims being heard so we changed the whole approach – not without criticism at the time, I might add.
“And when I left office, we had the highest number of sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record.
“That record is not secret. As a public servant, it is there for everyone to see.
“I also called for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. I called for that a decade ago. The Tories did nothing about that for 10 long years including when the Jay report came out nearly three years ago.”
Alluding to Musk’s recent support for far-right extremist Tommy Robinson, Starmer said: “Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they are interested in themselves.
“Those who are cheerleading Tommy Robinson are not interested in justice.
“They are supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case. A gang grooming case.
“These are people who are trying to get some kind of vicarious thrill from street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”
Starmer then added that he was “proud” to call Phillips a colleague and a friend.
“Jess Phillips has done a 1,000 times more than they’ve even dreamed about when it comes to protecting victims of sexual abuse throughout her entire career,” Starmer said.
“I’m prepared to call this out for what it is.
“We’ve seen this playbook many times, whipping up intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it.
“Jess Phillips does not need me or anybody else to speak on her behalf.
“But when the poison of the far-right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, that in my book, a line has been crossed.”
He said the “cut and thrust of politics” has “got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies, not on those who are so desperate for attention they are prepared to debase themselves and their country.”
He said he will not tolerate “this discussion and debate based on lies”, nor “politicians jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention when those politicians stood in government for 14 long years, tweeting, talking, but not doing anything for it”.
When a reporter separately asked the PM what he thought about Musk asking his followers on X if “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”, he said, “I don’t really have any comments on the comment made by Elon Musk this morning.”
Musk replied to Starmer’s criticism by doubling down on his claims against the PM.
He replied to a GB News clip of Starmer being asked if he is “afraid” a public national inquiry into the grooming gang scandal would “expose failings” from his time as DPP, saying: “Real answer is yes.”
He also claimed: “British legal system is not serving its people.”
In the hours before the PM was due to speak, the X CEO told his followers to “prepare for some epic cringe.”