NIGEL Farage has defended Elon Musk’s attacks on Keir Starmer’s grooming gang “failures” as he called for a public inquiry.
The world’s richest man accused the PM of failing to prosecute grooming gangs during his spell as chief prosecutor earlier this week.
In his escalating dispute with Sir Keir, Musk said the PM had failed to properly prosecute rape gangs while director of public prosecutions (DPP), and has repeatedly shared posts from MPs calling for a national inquiry.
The billionaire also suggested that Home Office minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison” in a series of posts on X.
Now, Reform leader Farage has weighed into the debate after Musk’s bombshell tweets.
Asked about Musk’s comments, he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that “tough things get said… by both sides of the debate”.
Farage welcomed Musk’s ownership of the platform, formerly Twitter, saying open debate is now possible.
He said: “This man happens to be the richest man in the world, but equally, the fact that he’s bought Twitter now actually gives us a place where we can have a proper open debate about many things.
“Free speech is back, we may find it offensive, but it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
The Reform leader said that he would rather live in a world “where we may cause offence” than live in one where “free speech and debate get shut down”.
Farage added: “The fact that Musk supports me, and supports Reform doesn’t mean we have to agree with everything the other says.”
Billionaire Musk has in recent weeks voiced his support for Reform UK, amid rumours he is preparing to donate up to $100m to the party.
Asked whether he was defending the Tesla tycoon because of the rumoured donation from the billionaire to Reform UK being in the works, Farage said the $100m figure was “for the birds”.
But he said Musk “may well” give his party money, stressing that “it’s got to be legal” and “he has to be comfortable with it”.
Farage said that, more importantly than cash donations, Musk makes Reform “look cool with huge numbers of young people”, describing him as “a hero”.
It came as the Home Office defended its decision to reject a request for it to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.
The Conservatives and Reform UK have called for a wider national inquiry.
However, a number of MPs have fired back after Musk’s criticism of the PM and Labour politicians.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper has defended Ms Phillips as a “fearless and formidable” advocate for victims who has “dedicated her career to tackling sexual violence and abuse”.
And health secretary Wes Streeting said Mr Musk’s remarks were ridiculous and ill-informed.and “not fair on either of their records”.
“As director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer opened up historic cases so that people who got away with it, we went after them,” he told Sky News.
He added: “I’m not interested in what [Mr Musk] has to say about this… I am interested in what we are doing as a government which is taking the record that the PM and Jess Phillips and home secretary Yvette Cooper have on this issue to deliver the real change victims deserve.”
What is Labour’s case against a full, judge-led investigation into appalling ‘grooming gangs’ scandal and its causes?
Given how keen it has always been on public inquiries, we have to wonder why the Government now rejects one into the monstrous “grooming gangs” scandal.
The rape and abuse of thousands of girls by hundreds of mainly British-Asian perverts in multiple towns and cities not only destroyed those children’s lives but blights our nation.
When last in power Labour loved such probes.
In opposition too they demanded one over every scandal they thought might damage the Tories.
We suspect that chiefly motivated their clamour for the Covid Inquiry too.
A full public inquiry into the decades-long national scourge of paedophile rape gangs, let alone the one solely covering Oldham which the Government has refused, might prove deeply uncomfortable for Labour.
It would likely blame Left-wing politicians, council officials and police chiefs and their foolish paranoia over racism while perhaps also condemning Britain’s flawed approach to multiculturalism and the dangers of a hyper-liberalism which tolerates actual evil.
Some who turned a blind eye might potentially end up in jail.
The Tories are making hay with all this.
But they had 14 years for just such an inquiry and didn’t go ahead either.
It comes after Farage distanced himself from Tommy Robinson after Elon Musk swung behind the jailed political activist, calling for his release.
Farage said Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is “not what we need”, as his party seeks to challenge Labour in upcoming elections.
On whether Reform UK would accept support from Robinson in the future, Farage told GB News: “We’re a political party aiming to win the next general election.
“He’s not what we need.”
Farage resigned from Ukip, the party he once led, in 2018 over its “obsession” with Robinson.
Lee Anderson, Reform’s chief whip, said that Robinson would not be allowed to join the party, told the outlet: “Tommy Robinson? No, I wouldn’t welcome him into Reform UK. I think we made our position quite clear on that.
“We need to win the next election to save this great country of ours and we can’t have any distractions at all.
“I think Tommy Robinson would be a distraction.”
