By Catarina Demony
LONDON (Reuters) – A British minister who Elon Musk has described as a “rape genocide apologist” said on Tuesday the U.S. billionaire knew “absolutely nothing” about the child sexual abuse scandals he has recently been commenting on.
Musk, an ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has spent days posting messages on his social media site X accusing Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute gangs of men who raped young girls when Starmer was director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
Musk has also attacked Starmer’s safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, describing her as a “rape genocide apologist” who should be in jail. Phillips has spent much of her career working with victims of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking.
Musk and opposition politicians have called for a new national inquiry into the scandals after Phillips told the council of a town where sex abuse cases were reported that it should hold its own investigation.
Other investigations into child abuse scandals have been carried out in different areas of northern England. A broader nationwide public inquiry into child sexual abuse, including within churches and schools, reported in 2022, making a number of recommendations which have not yet been implemented.
Starmer defended his work as Britain’s top prosecutor on Monday, addressing Musk’s criticism and saying that “those spreading lies and misinformation…are not interested in victims, they are interested in themselves”.
Speaking to broadcaster ITV, Phillips said Musk’s comments, which she described as “ridiculous”, turned her “world upside down”.
“It’s not great and the thing that annoys me the most about it is that it takes so much bandwidth of my time from a man who knows absolutely nothing about the subject he is talking about,” Phillips said.
Sky News reported on Monday a man had been charged following threats towards Phillips. Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed a man had been charged with three counts of malicious communication between April 2024 and January 2025 but did not name the victims.
In another interview with Sky News, Phillips said she has dedicated her life to fighting child exploitation and it was “painful” to watch it become “political football”.
Responding to Starmer’s criticism, Musk said on X the prime minister was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”, adding: “That’s what the inquiry would show.”
(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Editing by Nia Williams)
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