There is much commotion over the stand that tech billionaire Elon Musk has taken on the Keir Starmer government in Britain. He is vocal in his criticism of the Labour government for the refusal to act against the sexual abuse of vulnerable and underage white girls by groups of Pakistani Muslim men, and wants the Starmer government to resign and Britain to have fresh elections. He is going after Starmer and Co with as much as firepower as possible, leading to screams of electoral interference coming not just from Britain, but also other countries that are in the crosshairs of Musk, who wields worldwide influence courtesy his social media platform X and now has the backing of incoming US President Donald Trump. There is reason for Musk to be outraged. The scale of the crimes committed in Britain is horrendous. There are claims of anything between 250,000 to half a million girls falling prey to horrific torture and abuse by these Pakistani gangs over the decades. Even if there is no confirmation of these numbers, even one case is one too many. A 2014 report estimates that at least 1,400 girls were sexually abused in Rotherham alone between 1997 and 2013 by the Pakistani grooming gangs. In fact “grooming gangs” is actually a misnomer, because these are actually rape gangs.
Another 1,000 girls were found to have been abused in Telford. Amid this, the behaviour of the British political class and the media is shocking. They are guilty of covering up the crimes and downplaying the scale of the torture and abuse that the victims faced. Many of them died because of such torture. From politicians to media, the constant refrain has been, these rapes were committed by Asian men. This has angered many Asian communities, because from Japan to India, they have been branded as rapists, when the truth is that this is a problem related to Pakistani men. This extreme political correctness has even impacted governance, with Starmer being accused of diluting policy against child sexual abuse between 2008 and 2013, when he served as director of Public Prosecutions for the Crown Prosecution Service. He is also being accused of being lenient with the criminals who perpetrated such crimes. While Starmer has denied these charges, what is roiling Britain is that till date no national inquiry has been ordered into these horrific incidents.
This unwillingness has to be seen in the context of the widespread support that Keir Starmer’s Labour party enjoys from the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities—over 80% of these communities vote for Labour en masse. It is a captive vote bank, of which the Labour is unwilling to let go. This should explain why there is so much reticence not only to name the Pakistani criminals, but also to shield them.
In this context, it would be wrong to accuse Elon Musk of interference in a sovereign country’s internal affairs. Extreme situations are bound to evoke extreme reactions. Keir Starmer won with a full majority. He in fact led the Labour to victory by sweeping the UK general election last year. To advocate his removal may come across as fundamentally undemocratic. The decision should ideally be left to the people, not to tech billionaires. However, Starmer’s alleged actions are reprehensible and there must be an inquiry into his conduct. No amount of crying “interference” can take away from this fact. The lives of too many young girls have been destroyed forever and if Starmer is found complicit, there must be consequences. That’s what democracy is all about.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk may come across as overzealous in this matter and may be accused of making efforts towards government change, but to call him the George Soros of the right—as many are doing—is not correct. Musk is openly advocating a cause, which should get the world’s attention. Justice must be done to the victims. No amount of deflecting attention will take away from the fact that horrific sexual crimes against children were committed. In comparison, George Soros operates from behind the scenes, through his innumerable fronts, with money making being one of his primary motives, apart from his zeal to remake the world according to his own worldview. There is no comparison between the two. In fact, Elon Musk is doing a service to the world. If his outpourings on X can make the UK government take action against Britain’s Pakistani rape gangs, it will be a good deed done.
