Britain’s prime minister reverses his position on the need for a national investigation into the abuse scandal, after criticism by Elon Musk.
Succumbing to pressure, Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Saturday announced a full national inquiry into child sexual exploitation and abuse — a years-old issue brought back to public attention by the tech billionaire Elon Musk in vitriolic social media posts some months ago.
For months, Mr. Starmer had faced criticism for refusing to set up a comprehensive national investigation with wide-ranging powers into the abuse by so-called “grooming gangs” of men, who were found to have sexually exploited thousands of girls over the past two decades.
Instead, the government argued that the issue had already been examined, and that its priority was implementing the findings of a previous investigation into child sexual abuse. That inquiry took seven years, processed more than two million pages of evidence and featured the voices of some 6,000 victims.
But speaking to reporters on his way to the Group of 7 summit meeting in Canada, Mr. Starmer said that he had now accepted recommendations from Louise Casey, who was asked earlier this year to review the data and evidence on the nature and scale of abuse.
Ms. Casey, a member of the House of Lords, the unelected upper chamber of the British Parliament, had originally thought a full national inquiry was unnecessary but had changed her mind, Mr. Starmer said.
“She’s come to the view there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she’s seen,” Mr. Starmer told the BBC. “I’ve read every single word of her report and I’m going to accept her recommendation.”
