UK’s ‘Pakistani Grooming Gangs’ Scandal Explained: Why Elon Musk Criticized PM Keir Starmer

UK’s ‘Pakistani Grooming Gangs’ Scandal Explained: On Wednesday, UK lawmakers added better protections to children educated in the home-the school in relation to the brutal murder of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl, and voted on such issues marred by the recent row on grooming gangs.

The MPs moved the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill to the next stage of the parliamentary process without the need for a further formal vote.

That followed the MPs’ slight rejection of an amendment that quite almost derailed the legislation.

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The MPs have totally disregarded a Conservative attempt to hard press for another national inquiry into grooming gangs by 364 votes to 111. The Government's draft child protection legislation passed its first Commons test on Wednesday after a raucous Prime Minister's Questions in which Tory leader Kemi Badenoch argued that failure to support an inquiry would add to fears of a "cover-up".

This very much follows the defence by Keir Starmer of his record in prosecuting child grooming gangs leaving those "spreading misinformation not interested in the victims" as he remains in a war of words with billionaire Elon Musk.

Elon Musk's attacks on UK PM Keir Starmer

British-born Tesla and X owner unleashed a barrage of attacks on the Prime Minister through social media in recent days, saying he was "complicit in the crimes" of child sex offenders as he asked for a national investigation into child sexual abuse.

The PM has hit back saying Musk and others "spread lies and misinformation" and saying "a line has been crossed" by the businessman when he called Home Office minister Jess Phillips a "rape genocide apologist".

For the past few weeks, Musk has been tweeting vile postings about, part of the US President-elect Donald Trump team, criticising Keir Starmer for how he managed the summer riots, and even showing support for jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose original name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Sir Keir wrote in the Sun newspaper about the Chief Prosecutor's defence for his pastwork between 2008 and 2013, where he led the justice system while it began to prosecute child grooming gangs-which has now become one of Musk's attacks.

What is the UK grooming gangs scandal?

The rape and sexual exploitation of thousands of girls and young women, according to news agency AFP, happened over decades in various towns across England, which were part of the basis of Elon Musk's attacks on Keir Starmer.

Gangs of men, often from Pakistani backgrounds, targeted mostly white girls from disadvantaged backgrounds, some of who lived in children's homes.

Over four decades, a network of gangs has been active in many English towns and cities, especially in the north like Rotherham and Rochdale, but also Oxford and Bristol.

A public inquiry concluded in 2014 that in Rotherham, a town with 265,000 residents, a gang had drugged at least 1,400 girls and raped and sexually exploited them over a 16-year period starting from 1997.

The Jay Report of the inquiry has been brutal on police and local authorities for the scandal that has traumatized the whole nation.

This has pushed some, especially from the political right to argue that there is such a thing as a "two-tier" justice system, a system that treats ethnic minority communities differently.

The Escape from the Smoke, Britain's biggest investigation of its kind into Rotherham, by the National Crime Agency-and already about thirty people are behind bars for long stints in prison.

Over 1000 Victims

An independent inquiry commissioned by a local authority in Telford, western England, estimated that there have been more than 1,000 victims over a 35-year period of grooming gangs in that area.

In another probe, Rochdale, close to Manchester in the northwest, found that the courts sentenced about 40 men for sexual violence against 13 children "at the mercy of their gang" between 2004 and 2013.

The report also identified 96 men as still deemed a potential risk to child safety and added that this is "only a proportion" of all involved in the abuse.

But why is Elon Musk targeting UK's PM?

Elon Musk has sharpened on Starmer's tenure head of the prosecution service for England and Wales between 2008 and 2013. The US billionaire has criticized Starmer's government for not agreeing to hold a new public inquiry into the scandal.

Minister argues that Britain had "The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse" which published 19 reports based on 15 investigations conducted on different institutions, the last of which was in October 2022.

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Critics say it did not focus much on the cases of grooming gangs.

Musk also slammed the safeguarding minister Jess Phillips for rejecting requests for an inquiry from the Oldham council, yet another town close to Manchester with gangs, saying she "deserves to be in prison."

An independent investigation in Oldham concluded that there had been sexual exploitation of vulnerable children as a result of "serious failings" by the authorities but has come under fire for focusing only on a three-year window between 2011 and 2014.

The local authority had approached the government in July seeking an inquiry for a deeper public investigation; however, Phillips responded, saying, "it is for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the government to intervene."

Starmer was on the attack on Monday in defense of his own history while slamming "those spreading lies" for his several days of hostile attacks from Musk. He said "a line has been crossed," following Phillips having "serious threats."

What the critics say

Critics say that Starmer would like to avoid a national inquiry because it would bring to light the shameful episode of his tenure as director of public prosecutions from 2008 to 2013. The UK PM defended his record, pointing out that he was responsible for the “first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang” and a change in the way similar cases were dealt with.

According to Prof Jay, who chaired the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which reported in 2022, “the time has passed” for another long inquiry into grooming gangs.

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