The prime minister has attacked politicians and activists “spreading lies and misinformation” over grooming gangs.
It comes after multi-billionaire Elon Musk accused Sir Keir Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” during his tenure as director of public prosecutions (DPP) for failing to tackle grooming gangs.
Senior Conservatives and Reform UK MPs have also spent the week calling for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
But Sir Keir said: “Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.”
He said the online debate had “crossed a line”, resulting in threats against MPs, including Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips.
Sir Keir went on to accuse the Tories of “jumping on a bandwagon” to gain attention.
Conservative MPs were “amplifying what the far-right is saying” on child sexual abuse after failing to act “for 14 long years”, he added.
Describing child sexual exploitation as “utterly sickening”, Sir Keir defended his record in office as DPP – saying he tackled the issue “head on”.
Sir Keir did not name any of those he thought were spreading lies, but his comments followed a series of questions about Musk.
Over the past week, the tech-entrepreneur has attacked the Labour government over the issue, using his platform on his social media site X.
Musk accused Philips of being a “rape genocide apologist” and calling for her and Sir Keir be jailed.
On Monday, Musk started a poll asking X users to vote on whether “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”.
This article was originally published at www.bbc.com
