Elon Musk’s attack on the government’s handling of grooming gangs is “misjudged and certainly misinformed”, Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said.
Asked about his comments, Streeting said “this government takes the issue of child sexual exploitation incredibly seriously”.
He told reporters: “Some of the criticisms Elon Musk has made I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed.
According to the data, 26% of group-based child sexual abuse happened within families, compared with 17% involving groups including grooming gangs.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said tackling grooming gangs was “not something to be politicised”.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has called Elon Musk’s criticism of the government’s approach to gang grooming “misjudged and certainly misinformed.”.
Tech multibillionaire Elon Musk has been calling for the imprisonment of safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and accusing Sir Keir Starmer of not prosecuting gangs that routinely groomed and raped young girls in a series of posts on his social media platform X.
Streeting stated that “this government takes the issue of child sexual exploitation incredibly seriously” when questioned about his opinions.
Musk was urged to “roll up his sleeves and work with us” in the fight against rape gangs.
Musk has also been criticized by the Conservatives for “sharing things that are factually inaccurate.”.
Streeting stated that Labour was “on with the job” of carrying out the findings of the independent investigation into child sexual abuse, which was headed by Professor Alexis Jay, “in full” while touring a care facility in Carlisle on Friday.
“I believe that some of Elon Musk’s criticisms are misguided and undoubtedly uninformed,” he told reporters.
However, we are open to collaborating with Elon Musk, who I believe has a significant responsibility to use his social media platform to assist us and other nations in addressing these pressing problems.
“We would be happy to have him work with us and put in some effort. “.
Musk, a prominent advisor to US President-elect Donald Trump, has frequently retweeted Reform UK and Conservative MPs calling for a national investigation, accusing Sir Keir of improperly prosecuting rape gangs during his tenure as director of public prosecutions (DPP).
Additionally, he said that Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, “deserves to be in prison” for turning down a request for the Home Office to order a public investigation into child sexual exploitation in Oldham. As was done in Rotherham and Telford, she suggested that the council instead launch a local investigation.
Even though the previous Conservative government rejected a similar request in 2022, the decision was criticized by a number of senior Conservatives.
Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Tory Party, has demanded a thorough nationwide public investigation into the “rape gangs scandal” in the United Kingdom.
However, Musk has also come under fire from the party for “sharing things that are factually inaccurate” and has disassociated itself from his demand that Phillips be put in jail.
Musk has “fallen prone” to sharing things on his X platform “without critically assessing them,” according to Alicia Kearns, who serves as Phillips’ spokesperson for the Conservatives on safeguarding.
She said that Musk “lionizes people like [far-right activist] Tommy Robinson – which is frankly dangerous” and “draws away attention from the survivors and from the victims” of rape gangs.
On Friday, Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, spoke highly of Musk, calling him “an absolute hero figure” and “very helpful to our cause.”. Last month, at Trump’s retreat in Florida, the two men met.
Musk has not contributed to his party, he told the BBC, but “he’s fully in support of us, he wants us to win the next election.”. Musk “has stated that he’s willing to give us some money if there’s a legal way to do it,” he said.
Three to seven percent of all reported sexual offenses against children were group-based, according to police data from 2023.
Data showed that families accounted for 26% of group-based child sexual abuse, while groups, including grooming gangs, accounted for 17%.
Nine percent came from religious institutions, clubs, and schools.
The systematic rape of girls and young women by organized gangs has been the subject of multiple investigations, including those conducted in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire, and Bristol.
Additionally, investigations have been conducted into how Greater Manchester Police (GMP) handled past cases of child sex abuse in Manchester, Oldham, and Rochdale.
Addressing gang grooming is “not something to be politicized,” according to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
“We’ve done this when others were looking in a different direction,” Burnham continued.
“In my opinion, this is something that needs to be fully and unwaveringly faced. “.
Health Minister Andrew Gwynne said earlier Friday that Musk “ought to focus” on US politics, where he will serve as an unelected advisor to the Trump administration on federal spending cuts.
In her remarks to LBC Radio, Gwynne emphasized that child grooming was a “very serious issue” and cited earlier inquiries into sexual abuse cases.
He stated, “There comes a point where we don’t need more inquiries, and had Elon Musk really paid attention to what’s been going on in this country, he might have recognized that there have already been inquiries.”.
