London, Jan 6 (PTI) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday strongly condemned "lies and misinformation" being spread on social media over his record as a former prosecutor and against one of his ministers in relation to the contentious issue of child sexual abuse by grooming gangs.

Without naming billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been using his X platform to attack the British government's handling of the scandal going back many years and involving men of Pakistani heritage in many cases, Starmer defended the actions being planned to implement expert recommendations.

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He defended his safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, and targeted the Opposition Conservative Party for jumping on a “bandwagon of the far Right” while failing to take appropriate steps to protect victims while in government.

“Child sexual exploitation is utterly sickening and for many years too many victims have been completely let down by perverse ideas about community relations. They have not been listened to, and they have not been heard," Starmer said in response to a media question about Musk's online attacks.

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"Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in victims. Those attacking Jess Phillips, who I am proud to call a colleague and friend, are not protecting victims. Jess Phillips has done a thousand times more than they've ever dreamed about when it comes to protecting victims of sexual abuse. I'm prepared to call this out for what it is… the whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping the media will amplify it,” he said.

Starmer said "a line had been crossed" in the attacks on Phillips, who was referenced as a "rape genocide apologist" on X.

In the ongoing war of words, Musk hit back with another post on his social media platform to label the UK PM as "utterly despicable", claiming he was "deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes".

It came as Starmer was launching a new action plan for the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) during a tour of the South West London Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom.

The Elective Reform Plan, published on Monday by NHS England, sets out a system-wide approach to hitting the 18-week referral to treatment target by the end of this five-year Parliament term. It includes expanded use of Community Diagnostic Centres, increased number of surgical hubs and greater use of innovation through the NHS App.

"This Elective Reform Plan will deliver on our promise to end the backlogs. Millions more appointments. Greater choice and convenience for patients. Staff once again able to give the standard of care they desperately want to,” said Starmer.

"The NHS should work around patients' lives, not the other way around. By opening community diagnostic centres on high streets 12 hours a day, seven days a week, patients will now be able to arrange their tests and scans for when they go to do their weekend shopping, rather than being forced to take time out of work. The reforms we're launching today will free up millions of appointments, so the NHS can be there for us when we need it once again,” added UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting.

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