Elon Musk grooming attacks ‘misjudged and misinformed’, Wes Streeting says

Elon Musk’s attacks on the UK Government’s handling of child grooming gangs are “misjudged and certainly misinformed”, Wes Streeting said.

The Health Secretary however offered an olive branch to tech billionaire Mr Musk, urging him to work with the UK Government to tackle online child abuse.

The Tesla owner has claimed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.

Mr Musk, a key member of incoming US President Donald Trump’s inner circle, also suggested safeguarding minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison” after she denied requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham on Thursday.

The businessman, who owns X – formerly Twitter – has used the social media site to post or repost about child grooming in the UK more than 40 times over the last 24 hours.

Several are from UK MPs like Reform’s Rupert Lowe and the Tories’ Robert Jenrick, while others include a video featuring right wing activist Tommy Robinson – who was jailed for 18 months for contempt of court in October.

Instead of the Government leading a probe, Oldham must follow in the footsteps of other towns like Rotherham and Telford and commission its own inquiry into historical abuse of children, Ms Phillips said in a letter to the local council.

A national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay concluded in 2022, and probes into Greater Manchester Police’s handling of historical child sex abuse cases in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale have been carried out.

Pressed if Mr Musk’s comments were unhelpful to the Government, Health Secretary Mr Streeting told ITV News that ministers took child sexual exploitation “incredibly seriously”.

He added: “Some of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we’re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue.

“So if he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we’d welcome that.”

The Health Secretary also told the PA news agency that ministers were supportive of an inquiry into the Oldham scandal, but signalled it had to be led locally.

“There may well be, and we think there is a good case for further inquiries into specific places, Oldham being a good and latest example.

“We would absolutely encourage and work with Oldham in establishing their own inquiries,” he said.

Andrew Gwynne, a minister working in Mr Streeting’s health team, had earlier taken a stronger stance, suggesting Mr Musk should to stick to US politics, where he is set to act as an unelected adviser to the Trump presidency on cutting federal spending.

Mr Gwynne told LBC: “Elon Musk is an American citizen and perhaps ought to focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic.”

After listing the host of investigations which had taken place, the minister added: “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 recognised that there have already been inquiries.”

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, which published its final report in 2022, described the sexual abuse of children as an “epidemic that leaves tens of thousands of victims in its poisonous wake”.

Led by Professor Jay, the 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.

In November last year, Professor Jay said she felt “frustrated” that none of the probe’s 20 recommendations had been implemented more than two years after its conclusion.

Mr Streeting said the Government was committed to implementing the recommendations of Professor Jay’s report “in full”.

Sir Keir and his top team have so far sought to not get drawn into a war of words with Mr Musk.

But Mr Gwynne’s response to the latest attacks from the Tesla billionaire represents a rare example of a robust response from a minister.

The 53-year-old businessman is also reportedly considering a major donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party, after they were pictured together in the US in December.

Lord Peter Mandelson, the new UK ambassador to Washington, suggested before he was appointed to the role that Mr Farage could be used as a go-between, to quell the row between Mr Musk and the Government.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has meanwhile said a full national inquiry into organised grooming gangs is “long overdue”.

Her shadow ministers have pressured Labour into backing an Oldham-specific investigation, despite the Conservatives having snubbed such an idea in Government.

Some Labour MPs have reportedly urged ministers and Government accounts to leave Mr Musk’s X platform as he continues his war of words.

But others who spoke with PA believe maintaining open communications on the platform is important for spreading Labour’s political messaging.