For several days, Elon Musk has targeted the British Prime Minister and accused him of having covered a pedophilia and prostitution network. Between 1997 and 2013, more than 1,400 children were gang victims in the Rotherham area, when Keir Starmer was attorney general.
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The scandal was revealed ten years ago. For nearly sixteen years, several hundred minors were abused and sexually exploited in several cities in England by gangs mainly made up of men from Pakistan. They targeted minors, most of them from disadvantaged backgrounds. Some were placed in children’s homes.
The most high-profile scandal is that of Rotherham, where a gang of at least 36 men drugged, raped and sexually exploited more than 1,400 minors between 1997 and 2013. At the time, Keir Starmer was attorney general, in charge of prosecutions. A position he held from 2008 to 2013. At the end of Operation Stovewood, the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom carried out by the Crime Fighting Agency (NCA), around thirty people were were sentenced to heavy prison terms in this case.
But a report published in 2014 condemned the inaction of local authorities, political, judicial and the child protection sector, accused of not having taken the reports seriously. The affair which traumatized England is regularly used by the British far right to denounce the laxity of public authorities and two-tiered justice.
Elon Muskwho has been taking a close interest in British politics lately, has decided to put the scandal back on the agenda. He accuses the current British Prime Minister, one of his regular targets, of “ complicity in the rape of the United Kingdom “. In the eyes of the billionaire, Keir Starmer left “ gangs of rapists exploit young girls without having to face justice “.
“ Starmer is despicable »
The owner of the social platform X also attacked the Secretary of State for Victim Protection, Jess Phillips. For not responding to a recent request for a government investigation in the neighboring town of Oldham, Elon Musk believes that it “ deserves to go to prison “. In 2022, an independent investigation concluded that vulnerable children had been victims of sexual exploitation in this city due to ” serious failings » from the authorities. But it was criticized for only focusing on a three-year period (2011-2014).
After several days of silence, Keir Starmer, who had reformed the processing procedures for this type of case, defended himself this Monday, January 6, without mentioning the Tesla boss. “ I also called for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. There, a line has been crossed. Those who spread lies and disinformation care nothing about the victims. They only think about their own interests “.
The head of the British government also denounced Elon Musk’s support for Tommy Robinson, a far-right figure and partly responsible riots this summer in England. The response of the new right-hand man of the American president-elect Donald Trump didn’t take long. The latter denounces “ senseless words » and attacks the Prime Minister again: “ Starmer is utterly despicable. »
Elon Musk is not his first attempt. For some time now, the billionaire has been increasing his attacks on several European leaders, including the German social democrat Olaf Scholz, and openly supporting far-right parties, such as the German AfD. His positions made Emmanuel Macron react. At the opening of the conference of ambassadors this Monday, the French president denounced the support of the boss of a reactionary international news “.
“ I find it concerning that a man with considerable access to social media and significant economic resources would become so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries », Concerned Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on public radio NRK.
Also readUnited Kingdom: a bitter start to the mandate for Prime Minister Keir Starmer