British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticized those \u201cspreading lies and misinformation\u201d about child sex grooming gangs in the United Kingdom, responding to an online storm whipped up by Elon Musk. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose that are spreading lies and misinformation, as far and as wide as possible \u2013 they\u2019re not interested in victims, they\u2019re interested in themselves,\u201d Starmer told reporters Monday. <\/p>\n
For days, Musk \u2013 the world\u2019s richest man and the owner of X \u2013 has used his social media platform to dredge up a years-long scandal over historic child sex abuse in parts of England. <\/p>\n
In one post, Musk called on King Charles III to dissolve parliament and order new elections in Britain. In another, he called for Starmer\u2019s safeguarding minister, Jess Philips, to be imprisoned, calling her \u201cpure evil\u201d and \u201ca wicked creature.\u201d On Monday, he also said Starmer should be in prison. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen this playbook many times, whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it,\u201d Starmer said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Starmer said he enjoys \u201cthe cut-and-thrust of politics,\u201d but said these debates must \u201cbe based on facts and truth, not on lies.\u201d <\/p>\n
He also criticized Conservative politicians \u2013 some of whom were in government during the grooming scandal \u2013 for \u201cjumping on the bandwagon\u201d and being \u201cso desperate for attention that they\u2019re prepared to debase themselves and their country.\u201d <\/p>\n
British lawmaker Ed Davey urged the UK government on Monday to summon the US ambassador over Musk\u2019s comments. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have had enough of Elon Musk interfering with our country\u2019s democracy when he clearly knows nothing about Britain. It\u2019s time to summon the US ambassador to ask why an incoming US official is suggesting the UK government should be overthrown,\u201d Davey, who serves as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party in the UK, said in a post on X. <\/p>\n
Davey stated that the American ambassador should convey to the US government that those at a senior level need to be \u201cvery careful about how they comment on UK affairs, whether they\u2019re the richest man in the world or anyone else.\u201d <\/p>\n
Musk has accused Starmer of being \u201ccomplicit in the rape of Britain\u201d for failing to thwart grooming gangs while he was director of public prosecutions (DPP). Starmer staunchly defended his record as head of the DPP on Monday, saying he changed \u201cthe entire approach\u201d that had stopped victims from being heard, and had \u201cthe highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a 2014 report, it was revealed that about 1,400 children had been abused by gangs of men in the northern English town of Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. The far-right has long capitalized on the scandal, pointing to the South Asian ethnicities of the majority of the gangs\u2019 perpetrators. <\/p>\n
Starmer\u2019s government recently rejected a national inquiry into the gangs, citing a string of existing inquiries into the issue and a 2022 report, the findings of which are still being implemented. <\/p>\n
Following his success in helping to re-elect Donald Trump in the United States, Musk has increasingly inserted himself into the political discourse of other countries. <\/p>\n
Last month, Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, ahead of federal elections to be held in February. As well as a string of posts on social media, Musk penned a weekend op-ed for a major German newspaper, explaining his support for the party, which has been accused of resurrecting Nazi-era ideology and slogans. <\/p>\n
In response, the German government accused Musk of \u201ctrying to influence\u201d the election. Asked how to respond to Musk\u2019s posts, Olaf Scholz, the embattled German chancellor, told German media: \u201cDon\u2019t feed the troll.\u201d <\/p>\n
Musk has also called insistently for new elections in the UK, despite the fact the last election was held just six months ago. He has backed the populist party Reform UK and on Sunday called for its leader Nigel Farage to step down, saying he \u201cdoes not have what it takes\u201d to lead. <\/p>\n
Although Musk did not immediately endorse another candidate, he has previously pushed for the release of Tommy Robinson, an imprisoned far-right agitator. Robinson has previously led far-right parties in the UK and has a swelling social media following. <\/p>\n
Speaking Monday, Starmer slammed those \u201ccheerleading\u201d Robinson, who was jailed for 18 months in October after he admitted to being in contempt of court by repeating false accusations about a Syrian refugee. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case,\u201d Starmer said of Robinson\u2019s supporters. He said this showed that \u201cthey\u2019re not interested in victims, they\u2019re interested in themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n
Other European leaders have become increasingly troubled by Musk\u2019s meddling in the politics of other countries. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Monday called this a \u201cworrying\u201d development. <\/p>\n
French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed disbelief at Musk\u2019s conduct. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had been told the owner of the largest social media network would support an international reactionary movement and directly intervene in elections, including Germany, who would have believed it? This is the world we live in and in which we have to conduct diplomacy,\u201d Macron told French ambassadors in Paris on Monday. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticized those \u201cspreading lies and misinformation\u201d about child sex grooming gangs in the United Kingdom, responding to an online storm whipped up by Elon Musk. \u201cThose that are spreading lies and misinformation, as far and as wide as possible \u2013 they\u2019re not interested in victims, they\u2019re interested in themselves,\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}