Elon Musk has made “misinformed” and “misjudged” feedback in regards to the authorities’s response to grooming gangs within the UK, the well being secretary has stated.
Wes Streeting additionally urged the tech billionaire and proprietor of X to “roll his sleeves up” and assist the federal government sort out little one intercourse abuse and exploitation on-line.
Mr Streeting was requested in regards to the more and more energetic curiosity Mr Musk has taken in British politics – he will even develop into US president-elect Donald Trump’s effectivity tsar this month.
Mr Musk, who has spoken positively about Reform UK on X and is reportedly considering making a donation to Nigel Farage’s party, has been crucial of the federal government’s dealing with of kid sexual exploitation throughout quite a few cities and cities greater than a decade in the past.
He has claimed Sir Keir Starmer had did not deliver “rape gangs” to justice when he led the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). In 2013, Sir Keir launched new tips for a way little one sexual abuse victims needs to be handled and the way a case needs to be constructed and introduced in courtroom.
Mr Musk additionally argued that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in jail” after she rejected requests from Oldham Council for a nationwide inquiry into situations of kid sexual exploitation within the city.
Requested by reporters whether or not Mr Musk’s feedback have been “unhelpful”, Mr Streeting stated: “A number of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made, I believe are a misjudged and and positively misinformed.
“However we’re keen to work with Elon Musk. I believe he is received an enormous position to play along with his social media platform to assist us and different international locations to sort out this critical concern. So if he needs to work with us, roll his sleeves up. We might welcome that.”
Mr Streeting urged Elon Musk to assist the federal government with tackling little one abuse on-line
The well being secretary additionally stated he believed that “political correctness was in a position to get in the way in which of going off the perpetrators of those critical crimes.”
He added: “We’re not going to let that occur.”
Outling her causes for rejecting an inquiry into Oldham, Ms Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, stated that whereas she recognised the “power of feeling” over the matter, she believed it was for “Oldham Council alone to determine to fee an inquiry into little one sexual exploitation regionally, quite than for the federal government to intervene”.
However in a put up on X, Mr Musk claimed “the true purpose she’s [Ms Phillips] refusing to analyze the rape gangs is that it will clearly result in the blaming of Keir Stamer (head of the CPS on the time).”
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative chief, has called for a national inquiry into the grooming scandal whereas shadow ministers have written to Yvette Cooper, the house secretary, asking that she reverse the choice to not maintain a nationwide inquiry into Oldham.
“Solely a statutory inquiry can adequately embody the nationwide nature of those crimes and points” and contemplate whether or not studies have been ignored by the police, CPS and native council “and even lined up”, the letter learn.
Nevertheless, a letter to Oldham Council written in 2002 by Amanda Solloway, then the Conservative safeguarding minister, later emerged and confirmed she had additionally rejected a earlier request from the native authority for the federal government to arrange a public inquiry.
As an alternative, like Ms Phillips, Ms Solloway argued in favour of a regionally commissioned inquiry.
In 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse printed its last report, by which it described the sexual abuse of youngsters as an “epidemic that leaves tens of 1000’s of victims in its toxic wake”.
Led by Professor Alexis Jay – who additionally uncovered the dimensions of kid sexual exploitation in Rotherham – the inquiry regarded into abuse by organised teams following a number of convictions of sexual offences in opposition to youngsters throughout the UK between 2010-2014.
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It advisable that establishments that work with youngsters needs to be required by legislation to report suspicions of kid sexual abuse.
In November final yr, Prof Jay stated she felt “pissed off” that not one of the 20 suggestions put ahead by the inquiry had been carried out greater than two years after its conclusion.
Mr Streeting stated the federal government was dedicated to implementing the suggestions of Professor Jay’s report “in full”.
“This authorities is dedicated to implementing the suggestions of the inquiry into little one sexual abuse,” he stated.
“We’ll try this in full. We’ll get on with the job.”
