The prime minister has attacked politicians and activists “spreading lies and misinformation” over grooming gangs.
It comes after multi-billionaire Elon Musk accused Sir Keir Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” during his tenure as director of public prosecutions (DPP) for failing to tackle grooming gangs.
Senior Conservatives and Reform UK MPs have also spent the week calling for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation.
But Sir Keir said: “Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.”
He said the online debate had “crossed a line”, resulting in threats against MPs, including Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips.
Sir Keir went on to accuse the Tories of “jumping on a bandwagon” to gain attention.
Conservative MPs were “amplifying what the far-right is saying” on child sexual abuse after failing to act “for 14 long years”, he added.
Describing child sexual exploitation as “utterly sickening”, Sir Keir defended his record in office as DPP – saying he tackled the issue “head on”.
While DPP, Sir Keir introduced a special prosecutor for child abuse and sexual exploitation to oversee convictions against grooming gangs.
He also changed the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidance to encourage police to investigate suspects in complex sexual abuse cases and court reforms aimed at making the process less traumatic for victims.
“I changed the system because I could see some of the things that were going wrong,” he told reporters.
Sir Keir said he reopened cases, brought the first prosecution of an “Asian grooming gang” in Rochdale and called for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse.
“When I left office, we had the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record”, Sir Keir said.
“The victims here suffered terrible abuse,” he sid, “and then they weren’t listened to.”
Phillips had also “done a thousand times more” to protect victims of child sexual abuse than those attacking her can “even dreamt about”, he said.
Sir Keir did not name any of those he thought were spreading lies, but his comments followed a series of questions about Musk.
Over the past week, the tech-entrepreneur has attacked the Labour government over the issue, using his platform on his social media site X.
Musk accused Philips of being a “rape genocide apologist” and calling for her and Sir Keir be jailed.
On Monday, Musk started a poll asking X users to vote on whether “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”.
Asked about the post, Sir Keir chose not to respond.
Musk’s push to oust the PM could spark diplomatic trouble for Labour.
Alongside being one of the richest men in the world, Musk is also a key adviser for US President-elect Donald Trump.
Musk has also used his platform to call for far-right activist Tommy Robinson to be released from jail.
Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for contempt of court, after admitting he breached an injunction against repeating claims about a Syrian refugee schoolboy he lost a libel case against in 2021.
Sir Keir accused those “cheerleading” Robinson of not being interested in justice and said he would not tolerate discussion and debate on lies.
“Once we lose the anchor that truth matters, in the robust debate that we must have, then we’re on a very slippery slope,” he said.
