Tesla CEO Elon Musk deepened his involvement in global politics with an attack on United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
In the last week, X has erupted over discussions of Pakistani child rape gangs that terrorized thousands of children in the U.K. over several decades. Though the extent of the problem had been known since the 2010s, a new firestorm erupted after the Labour government rejected a request from the city of Oldham for a Home Office-led investigation into the historic abuse, triggering allegations of complicity.
White British girls as young as 11 were targeted and gang raped by the groups, in addition to torture, threats, drugging, and murder. One 14-year-old victim was allegedly ground up into kebab meat. The surviving victims reported being subject to repeated racial abuse.
Musk began posting about the scandal on Wednesday but retweeted other accounts that had been discussing it days prior. His first post on the matter occurred early on the morning of Wednesday, quoting Telegraph columnist Sam Ashworth-Hayes, who in turn was quoting a report detailing how fathers who attempted to rescue their daughters from houses where the gangs imprisoned them were in turn arrested rather than the gangs.
“So many people at all levels of power in the U.K. need to be in prison for this,” Musk said.
He reposted others who posted the court transcripts of the trials of some of the gang leaders, detailing violent sexual abuse and gang rape.
“Vote Reform. It’s the only hope,” he said over the transcript detailing the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl, referring to Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist party.
“In the U.K., serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service’s approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008–2013,” Musk said.
“Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir [Starmer]. The real reason she’s refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Starmer [head of the CPS at the time],” he added.
In other posts, he called for new elections to be held in the U.K. while pushing for the release of right-wing activist Tommy Robinson, who was imprisoned in October for contempt of court.
Several British figures joined Musk in his outrage over the rape gangs scandal, including Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
“The details emerging about what the rape gangs (why call them ‘grooming’ gangs? It’s like calling those who stab people to death ‘knife owners’) did to girls in Rotherham are downright horrific. The allegations of possible police corruption in the case are almost beyond belief,” she said.
Musk’s commentary on U.K. politics comes amid a wider effort to expand his political reach outside the U.S., particularly in Europe.
The Labour government, fearful that Musk could have a decisive effect, is eyeing ways to neuter his influence. It has floated the idea of taking further measures to prevent foreign figures from making outsize political donations, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“We have no immediate plans to do, but we do have a manifesto commitment to look more broadly at our elections regime in the country, from things like votes at 16, which we are committed to, but also to make sure that our electoral system has got that integrity and is robust from many of the new issues that face undermining our democracy and our elections,” Commons leader Lucy Powell told Sky News.
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“But just to be clear, foreign donations to U.K.-based political parties is prohibited under current law, so that’s something that already exists,” she added.
The alarm was first raised by a meeting between Farage and Musk at Mar-a-Lago last month, during which they discussed political strategy. In a joint statement, Farage and the party’s treasurer, Nick Candy, said they had “learnt a great deal about the Trump ground game” and would have “ongoing discussions” with Musk in other sectors.