Farage defends Musk after grooming gangs posts
Nigel Farage has defended Elon Musk after the billionaire attacked the UK government’s response to grooming gangs on X, the social media platform he owns.
In a series of posts over several days, Musk suggested Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute gangs and said Home Office minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison”.
It came as the Home Office defended its selection to decline a request for it to navigator a community inquiry into kid sexual exploitation in Oldham. The Conservatives and Reform UK have called for a wider national inquiry.
Asked about Musk’s comments on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Farage said he had used “very tough terms” but that “free talk was back” on X under his ownership.
The Reform UK chief was also pressed on his wider connection with Musk, who is said to be considering donating money to his event.
Musk’s latest intervention on UK politics came after Phillips, a safeguarding minister within the Home Office, instructed Oldham Council to launch its own local inquiry into historic kid sexual abuse in the town, similar to inquiries set up in Rochdale and Telford. The local authority had called for a government-led inquiry.
The tech tycoon seized on the selection, which was taken in October, and began heavily criticising the British government online.
He suggested Sir Keir had failed to properly prosecute rape gangs while director of community prosecutions (DPP), and has repeatedly shared posts from Reform and Conservative MPs calling for a national inquiry.
Musk, who is a key adviser to incoming US President Donald Trump, called the prime minister “two-tier Keir” and accused Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist”.
On Saturday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended Phillips as “fearless and formidable” and someone who has campaigned “tirelessly for fairness for those badly let down by endemic institutional setback” for many years.
Asked about the comments, Farage said Musk had used “very tough terms”, but that “in community life, tough things get said. They get said by both sides of the debate.”
Farage said he believed in free talk, “even if what people declare is offensive, if you discover it offensive, if most people discover it offensive”.
He continued: “This man happens to be the richest man in the globe, but equally, the truth that he’s bought Twitter now actually gives us a place where we can have a proper open debate about many things… We may discover it offensive, but it’s a excellent thing, not a impoverished thing.”
Earlier this week, Farage distanced himself from Musk’s back for Tommy Robinson, a far-correct activist who is serving a jail term for committing contempt of court.
“The truth that he supports me politically and supports Reform doesn’t cruel I have to consent with every single statement he makes on X,” Farage told the programme.
“I will, at the inauguration, have a exchange with him on a variety of things – this will no question be one of them.”
In the interview, broadcast on BBC One on Sunday morning, Farage said the community is “absolutely correct to be” angry about grooming gangs.
He went on: “I just ponder people inquire themselves, what has happened to our country? How could this possibly have happened? Why did everybody desire to cover it up? Why has there been no packed community inquiry?”
In a note seen by the BBC, Phillips and Cooper wrote to the Conservatives setting out why they had asked Oldham Council to set up its own inquiry, rather than grant its request for a government-led one. The previous Conservative government turned down a similar request in 2022.
The note pointed out the local authority had already started setting up its own inquiry, and added that victims have said “noisy and obvious” they desire action.
“In Oldham the crimes committed by grooming gangs were horrific,” they wrote.
“youthful girls were abused in the most cruel and sadistic way. Victims and the throng require to recognize that all steps are taken to deliver fairness and protect children properly in the upcoming.”
They said they supported an independent review commissioned by Mayor Andy Burnham, which covered historic abuse in Oldham and led to a recent police investigation, as well as other kid protection work across Greater Manchester.
The note highlighted the work of the kid Sexual Abuse Inquiry, which published its final findings in 2022. It made obvious that “abuse must be pursued and challenged everywhere with no terror or favour” – whether in worry homes, churches, homes or by grooming gangs.
Professor Alexis Jay, who led that inquiry, said in November she felt “frustrated” that none of its 20 recommendations to tackle abuse had been implemented more than two years later.
On Friday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the government was getting “on with the job” of implementing the recommendations “in packed” since taking office in July.
There have been several investigations into grooming gangs in various parts of England, including Rotherham, Bristol, Cornwall and Derbyshire.
An inquiry into abuse in Rotherham found 1,400 children had been sexually abused over a 16-year period, predominantly by British Pakistani men.
An investigation in Telford found that up to 1,000 girls had been abused over 40 years – and that some cases had not been investigated because of “nervousness about race”.
Police figures from 2023 reveal that throng-based kid sexual abuse accounted for 3.7% of all sexual offences against children reported to police.
According to the data, 26% of throng-based kid sexual abuse happened within families, compared with 17% involving groups including grooming gangs.
