Elon Musk hit out at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying he had failed to curb the menace of grooming gangs, which are active since more than a decade.
The Complex History of UK Grooming Gangs and the Politics Surrounding Them
What are grooming gangs, why is Elon Musk discussing them, and is there a Pakistani connection?
The United Kingdom has long grappled with the disturbing issue of grooming gangs, which have sexually exploited thousands of young girls over the years. This deeply troubling phenomenon has not only devastated lives but also polarized UK politics.
In several high-profile cases that captured media attention, the perpetrators were identified as men of Pakistani origin. While some politicians and public figures have focused on these cases, researchers caution that emphasizing ethnicity risks overshadowing the broader issue of child sexual exploitation and could hinder effective solutions.
The debate resurfaced recently when billionaire Elon Musk weighed in, accusing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to address the problem of grooming gangs.
Musk also targeted Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, calling for her imprisonment after she declined to support a government inquiry into historical child abuse in Oldham.
Phillips instead proposed a local commission, similar to those established in Rotherham and Telford. The Conservative Party has criticized Labour, accusing them of neglecting the victims of these crimes.
Critics argue that Musk’s intervention is politically motivated, aimed at undermining Starmer’s government and bolstering the far-right Reform UK party, which is known for its anti-immigrant stance.
But how widespread is the grooming gang problem? While group-based crimes represent only a small fraction of child sexual exploitation cases in the UK, the intense media coverage and public outrage have sparked widespread debate.
Discussions have also highlighted systemic failures, with victims often being blamed or ignored by authorities. What does the data reveal?
According to UK police data, of the 115,000 reported sexual offences against children in 2023, approximately 4,228 (3.7%) were group-based crimes. Of these, 26% occurred within families, while 17% involved groups, including grooming gangs. Schools, religious institutions, community centers, and similar establishments accounted for 9% of group-based crimes.
In April 2023, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak established a task force to combat grooming gangs, which arrested over 550 suspects in its first year. Despite these efforts, the problem persists, with networks of abusers uncovered in multiple English cities.
These gangs typically target vulnerable underage girls, often those in state care or from broken homes, using alcohol, drugs, and gifts to manipulate them. The Oldham case, which has recently reignited debate, involves allegations of child sexual exploitation between 2011 and 2014 and claims of a cover-up by local authorities.
A 2022 independent report found no evidence of a cover-up or widespread abuse at local shisha bars or by taxi drivers but acknowledged that authorities had failed to protect some children.
In 2024, an independent review commissioned by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham revealed rampant grooming and exploitation in Rochdale between 2004 and 2013. The review highlighted systemic failures in investigating these crimes and led to the conviction of nine perpetrators, eight of whom were British-Pakistani men.
The report detailed how young girls were drugged, raped, and transported via taxis in exchange for money. This echoes the findings of a 2014 report by Professor Alexis Jay, which exposed the exploitation of 1,400 children in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. The majority of victims were white girls, while the perpetrators were predominantly of Pakistani heritage.
Similar cases have been documented in Telford, Oxford, Bristol, and other towns. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), led by Professor Jay and launched in 2015, has published numerous reports detailing these crimes.
These reports highlight the voices of victims, many of whom were blamed or shamed for their abuse and faced inaction from police and local authorities.
The Ethnicity Question
The role of ethnicity in grooming gangs has been a contentious issue. In her 2014 report, Professor Jay noted that some council staff avoided identifying the ethnic background of perpetrators for fear of being labeled racist.
When Rishi Sunak launched the grooming gang task force in 2023, he criticized “political correctness” for allowing perpetrators to evade justice. Similarly, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman claimed in a Daily Mail column that “almost all” individuals involved in high-profile grooming gang cases were British-Pakistani men.
However, the newspaper later clarified that her statement referred specifically to cases like Rotherham and Rochdale, noting that child sexual abuse perpetrators overall come from diverse ethnic backgrounds.
Braverman’s comments drew criticism from researchers, with 50 experts signing a letter warning that such claims perpetuate misinformation, racism, and division. A 2020 Home Office report found insufficient evidence to conclude that most group-based child sexual exploitation offenders were Asian or Pakistani.
It noted that the majority of child sexual abuse perpetrators in the UK are white. The report also highlighted challenges in accurately assessing ethnicity data, citing issues such as sample selection bias and data quality problems.
While high-profile cases have drawn attention to the involvement of British-Pakistani men in grooming gangs, experts caution against oversimplifying the issue. The focus, they argue, should remain on addressing systemic failures, protecting vulnerable children, and ensuring justice for victims, regardless of the perpetrators’ ethnicity.
