The Prime Minister is expected to face questions on Monday about Elon Musk’s attacks on his Government over past grooming gang cases as campaigners call for Labour to set up a child protection authority.
Sir Keir Starmer has so far not spoken to defend his record since the slew of online posts from the tech billionaire, who is a key member of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle.
As he returns from Parliament’s Christmas recess, the Prime Minister is likely to face questions over Mr Musk’s tweets and calls from other parties to launch a new inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
The chairwoman of a previous inquiry that uncovered wide-ranging failings in how institutions protected children said she was not seeking a new probe, but for the Government to take the steps recommended in her final report more than two years ago.
“Our mission is not to call for new inquiries but to advocate for the full implementation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse’s recommendations. A Child Protection Authority is critical to this process,” said Professor Alexis Jay.
Mr Musk’s criticism of Sir Keir included saying he had failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice as director of public prosecutions (DPP) from 2008 to 2013 and calling him “complicit in the rape of Britain”.
As DPP, Sir Keir brought in a national network of specialist prosecutors for child abuse and sexual exploitation to oversee convictions against grooming gangs and changed Crown Prosecution Service guidance to focus on the credibility of allegations rather than whether victims would make good witnesses.
Mr Musk also posted on X, which he owns, suggesting that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison” for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham and called her a “rape genocide apologist”.
Members of Sir Keir’s Cabinet defended him and Ms Phillips over the weekend.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper called the Birmingham Yardley MP a “fearless and formidable” advocate for sexual abuse victims and praised her work as a Home Office minister.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting called Mr Musk’s attacks on Ms Phillips a “disgraceful smear” on the Sunday media round.
She and the Prime Minister have an “actual record of banging up rapists, paedophiles and sex offenders, so they don’t need lectures from anyone else”, he said.
Social media platforms can help to clamp down on those grooming children online if Mr Musk wants to “roll his sleeves up and actually do something about tackling violence against women and girls”, he said.
The Tesla and Space X boss took aim at Ms Phillips after she wrote to Oldham council saying it must follow other towns such as Rotherham and Telford and commission its own inquiry into historical abuse of children.
Labour is now facing calls for a new national inquiry from Reform UK and the Conservatives, the latter of which had refused a request for a public inquiry into events in Oldham while in government.
Sir Keir’s Government is against launching another nationwide probe and has said it is working to implement recommendations from Professor Jay’s inquiry, which concluded in 2022.
That inquiry looked into abuse by organised groups following multiple convictions of sexual offences against children across the UK between 2010-2014, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Rochdale and Bristol.
Campaign group Act on IICSA, chaired by Professor Jay, has called on the Government to set out a timeline for putting in place its recommendations.
It has also urged it to set up a child protection authority to cover the key recommendations of standardising data collecting and sharing, enhancing analysis and identification of organised networks and abuse patterns and proactively funding measures to prevent abuse and support victims and survivors.
