“It would be more helpful if Mr Musk wanted to use his platform to support victims.”
— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) January 6, 2025
Elon Musk is “wrong” about Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips, and should put his platform to better use, health minister @KarinSmyth tells @AasmahMir on #TimesRadio. pic.twitter.com/thH3TeXHE3
Minister Karin Smyth suggested Elon Musk should focus on “helping” abuse victims rather than criticising the prime minister this morning.
Over Christmas, the close ally of Donald Trump upped his anti-Labour rhetoric and began to attack Keir Starmer’s past as the director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The tech tycoon claimed on X that it should be “prison for Starmer”, and has accused the PM of failing to prosecute gangs that systematically raped and groomed young girls when Starmer was DPP.
Musk also said last week that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips should be jailed after she rejected calls for a government-led inquiry into historic child abuse in Oldham.
But health and social care minister Smyth suggested the world’s richest man should focus on another element – helping victims of abuse.
She defended her boss and told Times Radio that the PM “is someone who has led the attack on the evil perpetrators of these crimes and supported victims, as is Jess Phillips.”
Presenter Aasmah Mir replied: “Elon Musk says that’s not true.”
Smyth hit back: “Well he’s wrong about that isn’t he?
“I think most people in this country know that and even under the previous government and previous committees of the House of Commons applauded Keir Starmer for his work as the Director of Public Prosecutions and leading the way on tackling these evil perpetrators and supporting victims and I think most of the country do know that.
“It would be more helpful if Mr Musk wanted to use his platform to support victims. It is a shocking crime.
“We know from Alexis Jay’s report that there are millions of people living with the consequences of decades of abuse in this country and those are the people we should be thinking about and supporting.”
She added: “He could use his platform to educate his audience about misogyny, about the evils of the crime.
“It’s clearly, as Alexis Jay reports, a long-standing problem and using that to, yes, expose the evilness of that would be a more helpful thing.”
Her words follow a strongly-worded slap-down from health secretary Wes Streeting, who said Musk’s criticisms of Jess Phillips were “a disgraceful smear”.
Musk has enjoyed trolling Labour ever since the general election, repeating a conspiracy theory of that left-wing protesters are treating more gently than those on the right by calling Starmer “two-tier Keir”.
Just on Monday morning, he asked his 210m followers if “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”.
Musk also appeared to form tight bonds with Reform and its leader Nigel Farage in recent months, and was even expected to donate a whopping $100m to the party as a “fuck you Starmer”.
However, only on Sunday, Musk decided Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” to lead.
