He’s spoken out after a barrage of online attacks from Musk, who described Starmer as “despicable”, accusing the PM of being complicit in the coverup of a historic sexual abuse scandal

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has defended his work as the United Kingdom’s top prosecutor, refusing to mention US billionaire Elon Musk by name but addressing Musk’s criticism that – long before he became prime minister – he had failed to prosecute gangs who sexually abused girls.

Musk, an ally of US president-elect Donald Trump, has spent days posting messages on his social media site X accusing Starmer of what he said was a failure to prosecute gangs of men, mostly of a South Asian background, who raped young girls when he was director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.

Starmer strongly defended his record as DPP, saying he had overcome resistance to tackling the allegations by reopening cases.

“When I was chief prosecutor for five years, I tackled that head-on … and that’s why I reopened cases that had been closed and supposedly finished. I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang … I changed the whole prosecution approach,” he told a press conference, visibly angry.

“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they are interested in themselves.”

Musk continued to refer to the scandal on X after Starmer spoke, including saying “Starmer is utterly despicable”.

Starmer has refrained from commenting on Musk’s increasingly critical comments of his premiership, not wanting to engage in a public slanging match with someone who could influence Trump’s thinking on ties with the UK.

But his impatience was clear at the press conference when he tackled the allegations over cases involving the gangs who systematically groomed and raped girls over a period of years, some of which coincided with his time as DPP.

A 2014 inquiry concluded at least 1400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013.

Saying he was making a more general point rather than directly addressing Musk’s comments, Starmer also defended his safeguarding minister Jess Phillips whom the US billionaire described as a “rape genocide apologist” in another message.

“I am prepared to call out this for what it is … When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats … in my book, a line has been crossed,” he said.

Starmer had wanted to discuss his plans to bring down waiting lists in the UK’s health service, promising to hit the so-called 18-week referral-to-treatment target by the end of this parliament, due to end in a new election in 2029.

He sees reforming the National Health Service as one way to win over voters critical of his first months in power, when he limited winter fuel payments to some pensioners and set out the highest tax-raising budget since 1993.

Starmer is applying Labour smear tactics from 20 years ago and thinks they will work today. He is a man of the past with no answers for today’s problems, let alone tomorrow’s. That such a huge scandal could occur should prompt soul-searching not ranting that those of us who… pic.twitter.com/dQmPdhVBdu— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) January 6, 2025

But Musk’s comments yet again overshadowed the prime minister’s attempts to set out his government’s priorities.

Starmer on Monday also accused the opposition Conservative party of “amplifying what the far-right is saying” and “jumping on the bandwagon” to gain attention after party leader Kemi Badenoch called for a “full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal”.

But Conservative figures criticised Starmer for “smearing people who are concerned about rape gangs”.

Badenoch said Starmer was “applying Labour smear tactics from 20 years ago” and was “a man of the past with no answers for today’s problems, let alone tomorrow’s”.

“That such a huge scandal could occur should prompt soul-searching not ranting that those of us who care about it are ‘the far-right,'” Badenoch said.

Shadow Conservative justice secretary Robert Jenrick said Starmer had “learned nothing” from a scandal in which “weak and cowardly local councillors and officials suppressed proper scrutiny,” adding: “Victims now demand a national inquiry”.

Starmer has not been Musk’s only focus in the UK.

On Sunday, Musk said Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage should quit as leader of the Reform UK party.

With AAP.