London – Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced Thursday that there would be a number of new central government-backed local inquiries into years-old allegations of child grooming gangs, weeks after Elon Musk accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failings in relation to the handling of the crimes in a series of tweets. The crimes took place a decade ago when Starmer was the country’s top prosecutor.
Musk’s tweets targeted Starmer personally, suggesting he should be in jail and that “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government,” thrusting the crimes back into the political conversation in Britain.Â
Starmer defended his record and denounced the criticism as politically motivated.
“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they’re not interested in victims. They’re interested in themselves,” Starmer told reporters after Musk’s tweets earlier this month, not mentioning the tech mogul and close associate of Donald Trump by name.
In 2012, a newspaper report on the grooming led to a major government inquiry, which two years later found that at least 1,400 children had been subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013. Similar exploitation was discovered in other towns, leading to a national inquiry.
The prosecution service, which was led by Starmer between 2008 and 2013, was criticized in the report for not pursuing charges in Rochdale because it viewed a victim as “unreliable” following an investigation between 2008 and 2009. That decision was later overturned by a Starmer appointee.
“Mr. Starmer has striven to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his term as Director of Public Prosecution,” a 2013 report from the Home Affairs Committee said.
In response to Musk’s tweets and the political pressure they sparked, Starmer vigorously defended his record.
“I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang in this particular case. … it was the first of its kind. We changed, or I changed, the whole prosecution approach, because I wanted to challenge, and did challenge, the myths and stereotypes that were stopping those victims being heard,” Starmer said. “When I left office, we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record.”
Starmer had initially said further inquiries into the grooming gangs could delay action on tackling child abuse.
“We will be guided by the victims, and what we’ve heard from the victims is that they don’t want to see another national inquiry,” Starmers spokesperson told reporters a week ago.