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Gordon Brown has hit back at Elon Musk’s claim he “committed an unforgivable crime against the British people” over the grooming gangs scandal.
The former prime minister said the Tesla tycoon’s attack was “a complete fabrication” and accused him of “propagating outright lies” about the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.
After a war of words between Mr Musk and Sir Keir Starmer, the world’s richest man turned his fire on the Labour grandee. His attacks centred on a claim circulating on social media that Mr Brown’s government sent a circular to British police forces in 2008 telling them victims have “made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour” and to not get involved.
Responding to a clip allegedly showing ex-police officer Dion Miller making the claim, Mr Musk said: “What””?? Explain yourself, Gordon Brown.”
In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, he added: “Gordon Brown sold those little girls for votes. Gordon Brown committed an unforgivable crime against the British people.”
In a statement on Monday night, a spokesman for Mr Brown said: “There is no basis for such allegations at all. They are a complete fabrication.
“There is no foundation whatsoever for alleging that Mr Brown sent, approved or was in anyway involved with issuing a circular or statement to the police because it did not happen.”
The forceful pushback follows Sir Keir’s initial reluctance to directly hit back at misleading claims Mr Musk had made about his own record as director of public prosecutions before entering politics.
After days of attacks over the grooming gangs scandal, Sir Keir eventually on Monday said the billionaire and others spreading lies about child abuse “have crossed a line”.
“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves,” he said. “They are cheerleading Tommy Robinson, a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case, a gang grooming case.”
In his own statement, a spokesman for Mr Brown debunked the claim being used to attack him, adding: “The original source of this allegation has expressly accepted that Mr Brown was not involved at all. Moreover, there is no evidence that such words attributed to him by Elon Musk have ever been used by Mr Brown, because he neither said nor did them.”
The former PM said the priority for everyone in public life should be securing justice for survivors, punishment for perpetrators and action by the government to ensure the horrific crimes can never happen again.
“That collective endeavour is undermined when some individuals and media outlets instead propagate outright lies about the reasons these crimes happened in the past,” Mr Brown’s spokesman added.
The X owner has latched on to the issue of grooming gangs, even though there has already been an inquiry, in what seems to be a right-wing attempt to stir up racial division.
He is urging a national inquiry into the scandal, backed by the Conservatives and Reform UK, which critics say is not needed because of one concluded in 2022 by professor Alexis Jay.
Since the emergence of new calls, she has said: “Our mission is not to call for new inquiries but to advocate for the full implementation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse’s (IICSA) recommendations.”
Labour has committed to implementing the 20 recommendations of the IICSA’s recommendations, and the government said it was working “at pace” to deliver the reforms set out in the 2022 review, which found abuse was “endemic” across society in England and Wales.
Yvette Cooper on Monday said that, as part of the process, professionals who work with children will face criminal sanctions if they do not report child sexual abuse.
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