Britain’s government has been pushed onto the defensive by comments from Elon Musk accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of complicity in a decades-old scandal over child sexual exploitation gangs.Listen to the Bloomberg UK Politics podcast on Apple,

Elon Musk's attack on Jess Phillips over grooming gangs is a "disgraceful smear", Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said. Tech multi-billionaire Musk posted messages on his social media site X saying the safeguarding minister should be jailed and calling her a "rape genocide apologist",

Jess Phillips has spoken about her fears for her life for the first time since Elon Musk unleashed a torrent of abuse against her over the child grooming scandal. The safeguarding minister found herself at the centre of an international storm when she decided not to agree to a national inquiry into child grooming and rape across towns in the north of England because one had already been conducted.

Jess Phillips has said Elon Musk “knows absolutely nothing” about the grooming gangs after the owner of X attacked her on social media. Speaking to BBC Newsnight, the Home Office minister said her life had been put in danger after Musk branded her a “rape genocide apologist”.

Keir Starmer slammed Elon Musk during a fiery speech in which he laid into the billionaire for his 'attention seeking lies' after he called safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a 'genocide rap apologist'.