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Nigel Farage has defended Elon Musk after the billionaire attacked the UK government’s response to grooming gangs on X, the social media platform he owns.
In a series of posts over several days, Musk suggested Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute gangs and said Home Office minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison”.
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.
Asked about Musk’s comments, Farage said he had used “very tough terms” but that “free speech was back” on X under his ownership.
Farage was also pressed on his wider relationship with Musk, who is said to be considering donating money to his Reform party.
Musk’s latest intervention on UK politics came after Phillips, a safeguarding minister within the Home Office, instructed Oldham Council to launch its own local inquiry into historic child sexual abuse in the town, similar to inquiries set up in Rochdale and Telford. The local authority had called for a government-led inquiry.
He suggested Sir Keir had failed to properly prosecute rape gangs while director of public prosecutions (DPP), and has repeatedly shared posts from Reform and Conservative MPs calling for a national inquiry.
Musk, who is a key advisor to incoming US President Donald Trump, called the prime minister “two-tier Keir” and accused Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist”.
On Saturday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended Phillips as “fearless and formidable” and someone who has campaigned “tirelessly for justice for those badly let down by endemic institutional failure” for many years.
Asked about the comments, Farage said “tough things get said… by both sides of the debate”.
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… We may find it offensive, but it’s a good thing, not a bad thing.
In an interview to be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday morning, Farage said the public is “absolutely right to be” angry about grooming gangs.
He went on: I just think people ask themselves, what has happened to our country? How could this possibly have happened? Why did everybody want to cover it up? Why has there been no full public inquiry?
An inquiry into abuse in Rotherham found 1,400 children had been sexually abused over a 16-year period, predominantly by British Pakistani men.
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