New year, new Starmer? Why PM decided to finally take on Musk's 'dangerous' disinformation
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For days, the attacks had been raining down from Elon Musk and his supporters on Keir Starmer, safeguarding minister Jess Philips and the wider government, over handling of the historical sex abuse cases. The consensus in Number 10, as voiced by another leader subject to Mr Musk's ire - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz - was do "not feed the troll".
And so, as Mr Musk posted dozens of times about sex grooming gangs in the north of England, and accused Ms Phillips of being a "rape genocide apologist" and a "wicked witch", the government kept out of the fray. But that all changed on Monday when the PM came out swinging, with the most impassioned remarks I can remember him making, when I asked him to comment on Mr Musk's abuse of Ms Phillips on social media.
He said the debate on child sex exploitation was based on lies, with politicians "jumping on the bandwagon simply to get attention", as he hit back at not just at Mr Musk but the leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch too. "We have seen this playbook many times - whipping up of intimidation and of threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it," he told me on a visit to Epsom hospital.
"When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book a line has been crossed. Can Starmer silence Musk?. As he falls out with Farage, how should politicians handle Elon Musk?. Elon Musk says 'Farage doesn't have what it takes' as Reform UK leader describes comment as 'a surprise'.
