Starmer: Conservatives and Reform prioritising ‘retweets’ over ‘safeguarding of youngsters’

Keir Starmer has accused opposition MPs of prioritising “retweets” and profitable favour with tech billionaire Elon Musk over defending youngsters.

Commenting forward of a debate on the Kids’s Wellbeing and Faculties Invoice, the prime minister stated Kemi Badenoch’s try to win parliamentary backing for a brand new inquiry into historic youngster sexual exploitation was a “surprising tactic”, because it dangers derailing the laws.

The Conservative Occasion has tabled an modification to the Kids’s Wellbeing and Faculties Invoice calling for ministers “to develop new legislative proposals for kids’s wellbeing together with establishing a nationwide statutory inquiry, centered on grooming gangs”.

If handed, the modification would halt the progress of the invoice, which incorporates measures aimed toward bettering safeguarding for kids.

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Reform UK, led by Clacton MP Nigel Farage, has tabled an modification to the laws alongside comparable strains. “We’re rejecting the invoice as a result of the house secretary has not launched a nationwide public inquiry into the rape gangs”, Farage stated. 

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It comes because the prime minister continues to face aggressive assaults from Elon Musk, the proprietor of social media web site X. Musk has claimed that Starmer is opposing a nationwide inquiry into historic youngster sexual exploitation as a result of he’s “hiding horrible issues”.

The tech billionaire tweeted on Wednesday: “Now why would Keir Starmtrooper order his personal social gathering to dam such an inquiry? As a result of he’s hiding horrible issues. That’s the reason.”

Musk has additionally urged Labour MPs to “do the best factor” and again the Conservative modification calling for a nationwide inquiry into grooming gangs.

The X proprietor responded to a publish from Reform’s Rupert Lowe, who stated Labour MPs “ought to ignore” directions from the federal government and vote towards makes an attempt stall the Kids’s Wellbeing and Faculties Invoice.

Musk stated in response: “For all these poor little ladies who had been so terribly abused, a lot of whom died, they need to do the best factor.”

In the meantime, House Workplace minister Jess Phillips has stated she faces an elevated danger to her security after Musk known as her a “rape genocide apologist”. The remark got here after Phillips declined a request for a nationally-led inquiry in Oldham.

Talking to the Mirror forward of the talk on the Kids’s Wellbeing and Faculties Invoice, Starmer stated: “No MP ought to be voting down youngsters’s safeguarding measures. It’s surprising they’re even enthusiastic about this as a tactic.

“It’s the elevation of the need for retweets over any actual curiosity within the safeguarding of youngsters.”

Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, observe him on Bluesky right here.

Politics.co.uk is the UK’s main digital-only political web site. Subscribe to our day by day e-newsletter for all the most recent information and evaluation.