UK backs local inquiries into child sexual abuse gangs after Musk stoked controversy
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Britain's government said Thursday that it will support a series of local inquiries into cases of organized child sexual abuse in the wake of a furor largely stoked by the world's richest man Elon Musk. In a statement to lawmakers, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government has also authorized what she called a “rapid audit” of the “current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country” and make recommendations.
The issue of so-called “grooming gangs," also called “rape gangs" by some, has risen up the political agenda in the U.K. after Musk recently took to his X platform highlighting the problem and condemning British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Musk criticized Starmer for not backing a national inquiry into the matter following a request from the local authority in the northern English town of Oldham, where police found girls under 18 were sexually exploited by groups of men in the 2000s and 2010s. Musk also alleged that Starmer failed to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s chief prosecutor between 2008 and 2013, a charge that the prime minister vigorously denied.
Because the cases in Oldham and similar ones in several other towns involved predominantly white girls abused by men largely from Pakistani backgrounds, the issue has been used by far-right activists to link child sexual abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of covering up the crimes out of a fear of appearing racist.
The decision to back a local inquiry in Oldham and four other areas is a shift in the government's position. It had previously indicated that there was no need for further investigations following a string of previous inquiries, both local and national.
