The UK has announced new investigations into cases of child sexual grooming dating back a decade after pressure sparked by Elon Musk’s tweet.

London – British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced on Thursday that there will be a number of new central government-backed local investigations into years-old allegations of child grooming rings, weeks after Elon Musk accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failings regarding the handling of children. Crimes in a series of tweets. The crimes occurred a decade ago when Starmer was the country’s first attorney general.

Misk’s tweets He targeted Starmer personallysuggesting that he should be in prison and that “America should free the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”, bringing the crimes back into the political conversation in Britain.

Starmer defended his record and denounced the criticism as politically motivated.

“Those who spread lies and misinformation as widely as possible don’t care about the victims. They care about themselves,” Starmer told reporters after Musk’s tweets earlier this month. Those close to Donald Trump By name.

In 2012, a newspaper report on grooming prompted a major government investigation, which two years later found that at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013. Similar exploitation was discovered in other towns. , leading to a national investigation.

The Crown Prosecution Service, which Starmer led between 2008 and 2013, was criticized in the report for not pursuing charges in Rochdale because it deemed the victim “unreliable” after an investigation between 2008 and 2009. This decision was later overturned by a Starmer appointee.

A 2013 report by the Home Affairs Committee said: “Mr Starmer strove to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his time as DPP.”

In response to Musk’s tweets and the political pressure they sparked, Starmer vigorously defended his record.

“I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming ring in this particular case… It was the first of its kind. We changed, or I changed, the whole approach to prosecution, because I wanted to challenge the myths, and I did challenge them.” “And the stereotypes that prevent these victims from being heard,” Starmer said. “When I left office, we had the largest number of child sex abuse cases ever prosecuted.”

Starmer had initially said further investigations into grooming gangs could delay action to tackle child abuse.

Starmers’ spokesman told reporters a week ago: “We will be guided by the victims, and what we have heard from the victims is that they do not want to see another national investigation.”