Health Minister Andrew Gwynne says X owner should prioritize “issues on the other side of the Atlantic.” <br>AI generated Text-to-speech<br>LONDON — A British minister said Friday that Elon Musk should focus on American politics rather than repeatedly criticizing the Labour government.<br>The X owner and key Donald Trump ally is deep in an ongoing feud with the U.K.’s governing Labour Party, tweeting his extensive disagreements with Prime Minister Keir Starmer over law and order, economic policy and free speech. <br>It’s prompted angry pushback from Labour MPs, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/elon-musk-uk-backlash-boost-far-right-activist-tommy-robinson/">particularly after</a> Musk on Thursday demanded the release from jail of a controversial far-right activist, Tommy Robinson.<br> “Elon Musk is an American citizen and perhaps ought to focus on issues on the other side of the Atlantic,” Health Minister Andrew Gwynne <a href="https://x.com/LBC/status/1875098673232699530" target="_blank">told LBC radio Friday</a>.<br>Gwynne was responding to Musk’s strident criticism of the way British authorities have responded to child sexual exploitation. He doubled down Friday, using a post on the X social network he owns to brand Starmer — formerly Britain’s top prosecutor — “complicit in the RAPE OF BRITAIN.”<br>Musk has already slammed Labour for <a href="https://www.gbnews.com/news/oldham-grooming-gangs-labour-government-inquiry-abuse-scandal" target="_blank">rejecting a national inquiry</a> into child abuse in the north of England and launched a full-frontal attack on Starmer over his record.<br>Musk wrote on X, the social media site he owns: “In the U.K., serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service’s approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008-2013.”<br>Demands for an inquiry into so-called “rape gangs” were picked up Thursday by Britain’s main opposition party, the Conservatives — which was voted out of office after a fourteen-year stint in July and similarly rejected demands for a national inquiry.<br>Speaking Friday, Gwynne pushed back at Musk’s characterization of the issue. He highlighted a string of local inquiries into child sexual exploitation alongside a wide-ranging national probe <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/iicsa-report-of-the-independent-inquiry-into-child-sexual-abuse" target="_blank">which reported in 2022</a>. <br>“There comes a point where we don’t need more inquiries,” Wynne argued. “Had Elon Musk really paid attention to what’s been going on in this country, he might have recognized that there’ve already been inquiries.”<br>A 2014 state-commissioned report by senior social worker Alexis Jay found that some 1,400 vulnerable children were targeted and sexually abused in the northern English town of Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. Jay blasted “collective failures” in the care system and said local authorities failed to confront Pakistani-heritage perpetrators of the abuse, in part because some staff feared being labeled racist. <br>The findings of that report, and a <a href="https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/6198/final-oldham-assurance-report-8-june-2022-14-digital-version.pdf" target="_blank">subsequent</a> local inquiry on exploitation in the town of Oldham, have since become rallying points for figures on the right of British politics, including insurgent Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who has sought the support of Musk.<br>Gwynne’s boss, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, offered Musk an olive branch in a later interview.<br>He said Friday that Musk’s criticisms were “misjudged and certainly misinformed” — and stressed that the British government is keen to cooperate with tech giants to address child sexual exploitation.<br>“We’re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue,” Streeting told ITV News. “If he wants to work with us and roll his sleeves up, we’d welcome that.”<br>For his part, Musk on Thursday night again approvingly shared posts by Robinson, the far-right ringleader who was jailed in October for breaching a court order relating to libelous claims he made about a Syrian refugee schoolboy.<br>Musk accused media outlets who reported on his backing for Robinson, including POLITICO, of having “hid” that schoolgirls were being “systematically raped” by “migrant gangs,” and branded reporters “despicable human beings.”<br><a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1874874025169895900/photo/1" target="_blank"></a><br>X owner and Donald Trump ally accused of spreading “poison” after he backs jailed activist.<br>X owner said a documentary by the English Defense League co-founder was “worth watching.” <br>From Elon to sausages, it’s been … a lot.<br>Britain’s symbol of power has an uncomfortable reputation for high levels of criminality. <br><br><a href="https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifEFVX3lxTE5CMzlVakNYZXNlcEVyV2ZuSGlEVXlYNWdvTmt4anR2TmhZdGhTbWdrZmg5MVd6MU45Nk91Ny1teWZzOS04WWNvYng2RmVvWlBXY3dsRWZXcHBqRDR3YlFsMDRNUXpwRld4R1NLdEExa2V4dnJCc2RtX003dlo?oc=5">source</a>