U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk watch the launch of the sixth check flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. | Brandon Bell/Getty Pictures/AFP
LONDON, United Kingdom — European leaders expressed rising frustration with tech billionaire Elon Musk on Monday, as a significant row escalated between members of Britain’s authorities and US President-elect Donald Trump’s key ally.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer slammed these “spreading lies and misinformation” following days of incendiary posts by Musk on his X platform over historic intercourse offences in opposition to kids in northern England.
Musk, who is about for a job in Trump’s administration, then accused the centre-left Labour chief of being “deeply complicit within the mass rapes” and “totally despicable”.
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European leaders together with French President Emmanuel Macron have additionally weighed in in opposition to Musk.
The French chief stated the SpaceX boss was “straight intervening in elections”, together with in Germany the place Chancellor Olaf Scholz has condemned the Tesla boss for backing an extreme-right social gathering.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre takes half within the Leaders’ Public Debate Panel throughout the JEF Leaders’ Summit on December 16, 2024 in Tallinn, Estonia. | Photograph by Marko Mumm / AFP
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Retailer stated he discovered it “worrying” that somebody with a lot wealth and affect was getting concerned within the politics of European international locations.
A lot of Musk’s focus in current days has been on Britain and historic scandals involving grooming gangs that first emerged throughout Starmer’s 2008-2013 tenure as chief state prosecutor for England and Wales.
The feedback pose a significant problem for Starmer’s authorities, because it tries to fend off rising help for the far-right whereas additionally in search of to keep up good relations with Trump’s incoming administration.
Musk’s tirade, which included calls for for a brand new public inquiry into the scandal, has prompted some UK opposition politicians to hitch within the criticism and name for a recent nationwide probe.
‘Lies’
The difficulty has lengthy been seized upon by far-right figures, together with Tommy Robinson, one among Britain’s greatest recognized far-right agitators, whom Musk has praised and stated must be launched from jail.
Responding to media questions on the subject, Starmer insisted he was “not going to individualise this to Elon Musk” however stated “a line has been crossed” with among the on-line criticism.
“These which can be spreading lies and misinformation as far and as huge as potential, they’re not concerned with victims, they’re concerned with themselves,” Starmer informed reporters, with out naming Musk.
“I’m ready to name out this for what it’s. We’ve seen this playbook many occasions: the whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it.”
The grooming scandal concerned the widespread abuse of ladies in northern English cities resembling Rochdale, Rotherham and Oldham.
A collection of court docket circumstances finally led to the conviction of dozens of males, principally of South Asian origin. The victims had been weak, principally white, ladies.
Subsequent official stories into how police and social staff did not halt the abuse in some circumstances discovered that officers turned a blind eye to keep away from showing racist.
Not one of the probes singled out Starmer for blame or discovered that he had tried to dam prosecutions.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech on a plan to cut back NHS ready occasions, throughout a go to to the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre (SWLEOC) in Epsom, south-west of London on January 6, 2025. (Photograph by Leon Neal / POOL / AFP)
‘Erratic’
The difficulty reignited this month after it was reported that UK minister Jess Phillips had rejected Oldham council’s request for a government-led inquiry in favour of an area investigation.
Musk has referred to as Phillips — a former ladies’s refuge employee — a “rape genocide apologist” and stated she “deserves to be in jail”.
Starmer has rejected calls by the principle opposition Conservative social gathering and the hard-right Reform UK social gathering for a brand new public inquiry, saying an earlier unbiased probe had been “complete”.
Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch wrote on X on Monday that she’s going to put ahead an modification in parliament on Wednesday requiring a “full nationwide inquiry into the rape gangs grooming scandal”.
Starmer stated he had handled the issue “head-on” as a prosecutor and oversaw “the very best variety of little one sexual abuse circumstances being prosecuted on document”.
However Musk claimed Monday that Starmer and former prime minister Gordon Brown had been amongst these complicit within the intercourse crimes, including in a single put up that Brown “bought these little ladies for votes”.
“Jail for Starmer,” he stated in one other.
Scholz on Saturday condemned Musk for “erratic” feedback after the billionaire labelled the German chief an “incompetent idiot” and got here out in help of the Various for Germany (AfD) forward of snap elections on February 23.
Musk shocked many individuals in Britain on Sunday when he appeared to U-turn on his help for Brexit cheerleader Nigel Farage, saying his anti-immigration Reform social gathering “wants a brand new chief”.
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