Nigel Farage defends Elon Musk over grooming gangs posts | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Nigel Farage has defended Elon Musk after the billionaire attacked the Labour authorities’s response to grooming gangs

In a sequence of social media posts on X, Musk instructed Sir Keir Starmer did not prosecute gangs and mentioned Home Office minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison”.

His outburst got here because the Home Office defended its determination to reject a request for it to guide a public inquiry into baby sexual exploitation in Oldham.

The Conservatives and Reform UK have referred to as for a wider nationwide inquiry.

Asked about Mr Musk’s feedback on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Farage mentioned he had used “very tough terms” however that “free speech was back” on X beneath his possession.

Mr Musk’s newest incendiary intervention on UK politics got here after Ms Phillips, a safeguarding minister, instructed Oldham Council to launch its personal native inquiry into historic baby sexual abuse within the city, just like inquiries arrange in Rochdale and Telford.

The native authority had referred to as for a government-led inquiry.

The tech tycoon instructed Sir Keir had did not correctly prosecute rape gangs whereas director of public prosecutions (DPP), and has repeatedly shared posts from Reform and Conservative MPs calling for a nationwide inquiry.

Mr Musk, who’s a key advisor to incoming US President Donald Trump, referred to as the prime minister “two-tier Keir” and accused Ms Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist”.

Asked concerning the feedback, Mr Farage advised the Sunday morning present that “tough things get said… by both sides of the debate”.

“This man happens to be the richest man in the world, but equally, the fact that he’s bought Twitter now actually gives us a place where we can have a proper open debate about many things… We may find it offensive, but it’s a good thing, not a bad thing,” he mentioned.

Earlier this week, Mr Farage distanced himself from Musk’s assist for Tommy Robinson – a far-right activist who’s serving a jail time period for committing contempt of courtroom.

Mr Farage added: “I just think people ask themselves, what has happened to our country? How could this possibly have happened? Why did everybody want to cover it up? Why has there been no full public inquiry?”

There have been a number of investigations into grooming gangs in varied elements of England, together with Rotherham, Bristol, Cornwall and Derbyshire.

An inquiry into abuse in Rotherham discovered 1,400 kids had been sexually abused over a 16-year interval, predominantly by British Pakistani males.

An investigation in Telford discovered that as much as 1,000 ladies had been abused over 40 years – and that some instances had not been investigated due to “nervousness about race”.

Police figures from 2023 reveal that group-based baby sexual abuse accounted for 3.7% of all sexual offences towards kids reported to police.

According to the information, 26% of group-based baby sexual abuse occurred inside households, in contrast with 17% involving teams together with grooming gangs.