Musk row breathes rare fire into PM's belly as he attacks 'poison of the far right'
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The prime minister has rarely seemed so passionate as when he answered a question from Sky's Beth Rigby on Elon Musk's vitriolic comments about safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who Musk described as a "witch" who should go to prison. Sir Keir Starmer was speaking at a press conference following a big new year speech on the government's plans to bring down NHS waiting lists - and while we were expecting him to take the opportunity to rebut Musk's inflammatory posts on the grooming gangs, he set out his position with all guns blazing.
After days of virtual silence - a vacuum filled online by yet more outlandish, defamatory comments - Sir Keir mounted a passionate defence of his own and Ms Phillips' actions and launched a blistering attack on Kemi Badenoch, too. It felt like quite a moment for the PM.
He described child sexual exploitation as "utterly sickening" and defended his role as chief prosecutor tackling that "head on" - reopening cases that had been closed, carrying out the "first major prosecution by an Asian grooming gang", and changing the way the CPS dealt with the issue.
Follow live: PM hits back at Musk. He praised the track record of Ms Phillips in fighting for the rights of child victims of sexual abuse, claiming she had "done a thousand times more" than any of her critics, and condemning the "poison of the far right" which had led to serious threats against her.
But rather than focus his critique on Musk himself - his real ire was directed at the Tory party. "A line has been crossed", he said, criticising "politicians jumping on the bandwagon just to get attention… so desperate for attention they're amplifying what the far right is saying".
