The grooming gangs scandal is back in the headlines after Elon Musk attacked Sir Keir Starmer and minister Jess Phillips for failing children.

The tech billionaire has accused Sir Keir of being “complicit” in the failure of authorities to protect victims and prosecute abusers while the PM was director of public prosecutions from 2008-2013.

Sir Keir has hit back at Musk, saying his record shows how he tackled the issue head-on.

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The row started after it was revealed last week safeguarding minister Jess Phillips rejected calls from Oldham Council for a government inquiry into historical grooming gangs in the town, with Ms Phillips saying the council should lead an inquiry instead.

She has since hit back after Mr Musk’s subsequent attacks on her.

Sky News looks at a timeline of the grooming gangs scandal, inquiries and Sir Keir’s role.

How did the grooming gangs scandal unfold and what prosecutions have there been?

2001: Names of taxi drivers who allegedly picked up girls from care homes in Rotherham to abuse them are passed to the police and council from 2001. The first convictions were not until 2010, with the latest in 2024 – a total of 61.

2004: A Channel 4 documentary about claims young white girls in Bradford were being groomed for sex by Asian abusers is delayed as police forces warn it could inflame racial tensions. It was finally shown three months later.

2010: 11 men, predominantly of an Asian background, are convicted of offences connected with the sexual exploitation of children in Derbyshire.

2011: Times journalist Andrew Norfolk starts receiving tip-offs about child sexual exploitation by predominantly Asian men in Rotherham. It was his insistence on pursuing the story, despite being called racist and concerns the far-right would latch on to it, that eventually led to a national inquiry.

2011: A girl abused by a grooming gang in Huddersfield writes a letter to a judge about the abuse she had suffered. It was not until 2013 that another victim came forward to police to make formal allegations, then dozens of girls and men were interviewed over the next three years. Victims and their families said they repeatedly told police and authorities but nothing happened.

2011: Operation Bullfinch is launched by the police and council in Oxford to look into a child sex abuse ring in the city. The first convictions are secured in May 2013, then 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2020.

May 2012: The first grooming gangs convictions of men from Rochdale and Oldham see nine found guilty of being part of a child sexual exploitation ring run out of two takeaways in Greater Manchester since 2008. A further five from the Rochdale area were jailed the following year.

May 2013: Seven men have been jailed, it emerges, at the conclusion of child sex abuse trials relating to offences in the Telford area.

2014: 13 men are convicted of the sexual exploitation of children in Bristol at the conclusion of Operation Brooke.

2017: A total of 29 men from a Huddersfield grooming gang are charged but a reporting restriction prevents media from reporting on the case to avoid prejudicing other cases. The ban was criticised by far-right groups, with Tommy Robinson – also known as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – jailed for 13 months (later reduced to nine months) after admitting contempt for filming outside a court during the trial.

2018: Twenty men, mainly of Pakistani origin but the ringleader was Sikh, who were part of the Huddersfield child sex abuse ring are convicted of 120 rape and abuse offences against 15 girls, and sentenced to a total of 221 years.

Three separate trials had to be held as there were so many of them. More men have been convicted since then, bringing the total number to 41 by August 2021.

2023: A Grooming Gangs Taskforce is set up by Rishi Sunak’s government, with qualified officers from all 43 police forces in England and Wales, and data analysts. In May 2024, 550 suspects had been arrested and 4,000 victims identified.

2023: Nine further men are charged with sexual offences in Rotherham under Operation Stovewood. Most of the offences took place between 2003 and 2008.

2024: Operation Stovewood sees 11 more men from Rotherham convicted for the abuse of vulnerable girls.

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What inquiries have there been?

There have been 10 inquiries and reports into the grooming gangs.

2013: The Home Affairs Select Committee publishes a report into the Rochdale cases, finding the failure to protect children fell to police, social workers and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors.

2014: An inquiry into grooming gangs in Rotherham, led by Professor Alexis Jay and commissioned by the council in 2013, finds 1,400 children were sexually abused between 1997 and 2013 by predominantly British-Pakistani men.

Then home secretary Theresa May commissions the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales following the Jimmy Savile scandal. Professor Jay became the chair after three others resigned.

2015: A West Midlands Police report from 2010 is released publicly after a Freedom of Information request by the Birmingham Mail.

It shows police knew five years before that Asian grooming gangs were targeting children outside schools in Birmingham but were worried about community tensions if it was made public.

2015: A report into Rotherham Council’s handling of child sexual abuse, commissioned by the government and led by Baroness Casey, finds the council had a bullying, sexist culture of covering up information and silencing whistleblowers.

A new police inquiry into child sexual abuse in Rotherham is launched, with 19 men and two women convicted in 2016 and 2017 of sexual offences dating back to the late 1980s.

2015: A serious case review by Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership finds 373 children (including 50 boys) could have been groomed and sexually exploited in the city. It accused Thames Valley Police of not believing children when they complained.

2019: An independent review into historic child sexual exploitation in Oldham shisha bars from 2011 to 2014 is commissioned by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham after Oldham council requested it.

2020: The Home Office refuses to release research into grooming gangs as it said it is not in the public interest. Following public pressure it releases the report, which finds no credible evidence any one ethnic group is over represented in child sexual exploitation. It is branded a whitewash by critics.

2022: The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse by Professor Jay is published after 12 years. It finds police and councils downplayed the scale of the problem and children were often blamed for their abuse.

It makes recommendations, including mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by people working with children, the establishment of a national financial compensation scheme for victims “let down by institutions” and the creation of a child protection authority.

2022: Oldham councillors called for a government inquiry into grooming gangs in the town but the Conservative government rejected it and said the local authority should commission a review.

2022: Greater Manchester’s inquiry into Oldham grooming gangs was released. It found the police and council failed to protect vulnerable children and covered up their failings.

2022: The Telford independent inquiry was published and found more than 1,000 children in the town were sexually exploited and the abuse was allowed to continue for years, with children often blamed.

The inquiry found issues were not investigated because of nervousness about race, with teachers and youth workers discouraged from reporting child sexual exploitation.

2024: Oldham councillors again called for a government inquiry but safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said the council had to carry it out.

What is Sir Keir Starmer’s involvement?

2008-2013: Sir Keir Starmer was director of public prosecutions (DPP), head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which conducts criminal prosecutions in England and Wales, for five years.

2009: The CPS was criticised for not prosecuting Rochdale grooming gang suspects in 2008 and 2009. It said the main victim was “unreliable” so dropped the case.

2010-2011: In that financial year, child sexual abuse prosecutions reached 4,794 – the highest during Sir Keir’s time as DPP. In 2016/17, nearly there were nearly 7,200 prosecutions.

2011: The decision to not prosecute in Rochdale was overturned by Nazir Afzal, chief prosecutor for northwest England, appointed by Sir Keir.

2013: A Home Affairs Committee report said unlike other agencies, the CPS had “readily admitted victims had been let down by them and have attempted both to discover the cause of this systemic failure and to improve the way things are done so as to avoid a repetition of such events”.

The report added: “Mr Starmer has striven to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his term as DPP.”

Maggie Oliver, a former Manchester detective and whistleblower, told the BBC the CPS “bears a great deal of responsibility for the failures around this issue”, including bringing inadequate charges and blaming victims.

2013: Sir Keir revised guidance on child sexual exploitation to make future prosecutions easier. Before, victims may not have been viewed as credible if they had not complained immediately, if they had used drugs or alcohol, or dressed and acted in particular ways.

2013: The Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel was created by Sir Keir to review CPS decisions not to bring charges or terminate proceedings after 5 June 2013.

What has Elon Musk said?

The billionaire, who posts on X, which he owns, many times every day, has also given a series of interviews, and has commented on the grooming gangs and child sex exploitation cases in the past. He has shown support for both Reform and Tommy Robinson and began to post about the grooming gangs scandal regularly, in response to others, in late December and early January.

31 December: In response to an X post referencing the grooming gangs and claiming “out of political correctness, the government did everything it could to cover up the crimes”, Mr Musk replied: “The government officials responsible, including those in the judiciary, need to fired in shame over this”

In response to a post that claimed that “Parents who attempted to rescue their children were arrested when the police arrived”, he said on X: “So many people at all levels of power in the UK need to be in prison for this.”

1 January: Then, after a series of other posts responding to people expressing similar views, including sympathy for Tommy Robinson and support for Reform, he responded to a post saying “Labour’s Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding, refused to back a public inquiry into child exploitation in Oldham” by saying: “Shameful conduct by Jess Phillips. Throw her out.”

2 January: He responds to a poster by calling for a new election, then…

He posts: “In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service’s approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013

“Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Stamer. The real reason she’s refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Stamer (head of the CPS at the time).”

Responding to a post criticising what someone called the legacy media, he said: “This is the same media that hid the fact that a quarter million little girls were – still are – being systematically raped by migrant gangs in Britain. They are beneath contempt. Despicable human beings.”

3 January: In response to a post talking about the cost of another public inquiry, he says: “No UK government inquiry for the gang rape of innocent little girls, but £22M spent on an obviously violent lunatic. Shame, shame, shame.”

He went on to accuse Keir Starmer of being “guilty of complicity” and accusing Jess Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist”.

4 January: He responded to an article in The Daily Telegraph, which claimed to show how the grooming scandal was “covered up”, by saying “How the rape of Britain was covered up” and then later added: “The sniveling cowards who allowed the mass rape of little girls in Britain are still in power … for now”.

Jess Phillips has said she has “more important things to be thinking about” than Elon Musk after he accused her of being a “rape genocide apologist”.

The safeguarding minister has hit back at the billionaire’s criticism of her for the first time, telling Sky’s political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that his claims are “ridiculous” and she will be led by what victims have to say, not him.

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Mr Musk made the comments after Ms Phillips denied a request for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, saying it should be done at a local level.

The town in Greater Manchester was one of a number of areas where girls as young as 11 were groomed and raped over a decade ago in a national scandal that was exposed in 2013.

Mr Musk’s comments have sparked a political row – with the Tories and Reform UK now calling for a new public inquiry into grooming gangs.

Ms Phillips said that the world’s richest man, who owns SpaceX and is the CEO of Tesla, should “crack on with this ‘getting to Mars'” instead of wading into UK politics.

“You know, Elon Musk is going to [do] Elon Musk. I’ve got bigger and more important things to be thinking about,” she added.

She said she has dedicated her working life to combating child exploitation and it was “painful” to watch it become a “political football”.

There has already been a seven-year national inquiry into child abuse in England and Wales, which the Conservatives commissioned in 2015 and which looked at grooming gangs, as well as abuse in places like schools and the church.

The investigation, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, concluded in 2022 but none of its recommendations have been implemented.

Child exploitation becoming ‘political football’

Ms Phillips, who has sat in courtrooms with girls who were groomed, said she was “really angry” at people “now claiming to be the virtuous flag bearers of these victims”, having not spoken on the issue before.

“These sudden demands by the Tories, ridiculous statements made about me and my government by a man thousands of miles away, it’s really painful when you know what I know,” she said.

“It’s painful to watch it become a political football rather than an actual attempt to really do something.”

She specifically called out Tory leader Kemi Badenoch for declaring 2025 as the year victims should get justice, given her party spent the past 14 years in government.

“Funnily enough, this all started about an Oldham inquiry, which a government she was part of also said should be done locally.

“And the fact that Kemi Badenoch is reacting to something that Elon Musk has said… I am reacting to things that victims say to me.”

Taking aim at other senior Tories pushing for a national inquiry, she added: “I’ve never seen Kemi Badenoch, Chris Philp, Robert Jenrick in any of the meetings that I’ve been in over the years trying to advance policy on this.”

Summit of council leaders announced

Ms Phillips went on to announce that the Labour government is planning to hold a summit of council leaders in areas where a local inquiry on child exploitation, such as that which happened in Telford, may be needed.

The Birmingham Yardley MP said this would “ensure that what I saw that worked [in Telford] can happen everywhere”.

“I’m interested in children being safe tomorrow, not whether my political seat is safe,” she added.

On the government announcing a new victims and survivors panel to sit within the Home Office, Ms Phillips said this was always part of their plan but the Musk “furore” has elevated it.

It was among a package of measures unveiled by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on Monday, including making it a criminal offence if professionals who work with children fail to report claims of abuse.

This will be introduced in the spring as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, and was a key recommendation of the Jay Review.

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Other suggestions from the review to be implemented include making grooming an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences and creating a new performance framework for policing exploitation.

However, there is no timeline for when all 20 recommendations will be put in place, Number 10 admitted today.

The prime minister’s official spokesperson said the final 2022 report was “not acted on by the last government” so this one is “working at pace” and “will provide any updates in due course”.

Prof Jay earlier told the BBC that victims “clearly want action” and do not need a new national inquiry into grooming gangs, as she too hit out at the “politicisation of child sexual exploitation”.

And on Monday Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer accused Mr Musk and others of “spreading lies and misinformation”, about grooming gangs, saying “a line has been crossed” with the attacks on Ms Phillips, who has received threats.

Later in the podcast interview, Ms Phillips said Mr Musk’s comments had put her safety at risk, saying there was a difference between “robust debate” and spreading misinformation.

“If you have misinformation, you have to think about the consequences of what that does. And one of those consequences is a risk to members of parliament.”

You can listen to Beth’s full interview with Jess Phillips in Electoral Dysfunction on Friday.

The Conservatives’ attempts to force MPs to vote for a statutory inquiry into child sex gangs would not lead to an inquiry, even if it’s supported in the Commons.

As part of the ongoing debate on the topic, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said her party plans to table an amendment on Wednesday to the Children’s Wellbeing Bill to require a statutory inquiry into grooming gangs.

Writing on X, Ms Badenoch said she hoped “MPs from all parties” would support the inquiry.

Passing the amendment, however, would not force the government to launch such an inquiry necessarily – and would instead kill the legislation.

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Here’s why…

What is the point of the amendment?

First off, it’s important to note that the primary purpose of moves like this is the politics, rather than the procedure.

By forcing a vote on an amendment – with Labour opposing it – the Conservatives will be able to point to Labour and say they voted against an inquiry.

Labour’s massive majority means the Tories have an almost zero chance of winning – and this kind of move is made by all oppositions.

Conservative strategists will also hope it foments unrest on the Labour benches if there are MPs unhappy with Downing Street’s or Sir Keir Starmer’s response to the issue.

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Why would supporting the amendment not cause an inquiry?

It is at this point we get into the weeds of parliamentary procedure.

When a bill is proposed in the Commons, it passes through several stages. First it is introduced to the House – and there is no debate at this point.

Then there is a “second reading”, where MPs debate the bill for the first time and vote on whether it should proceed.

It is after this point that MPs take the bill away into a committee and go through line by line and propose and consider amendments. Further votes follow, as well as stages in the Lords before it becomes law.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill is set to have its second reading on Wednesday.

As was mentioned above – amendments do not normally take place until after this stage.

By proposing an amendment at the second reading, the Conservatives have to use what is known as a “reasoned amendment”.

If this passes, instead of changing the proposed bill for future votes, it kills it off and no further stages take place.

Furthermore, this would stop the government reintroducing the Children’s Wellbeing Bill again until after the next King’s Speech.

The purpose of Children’s Wellbeing Bill is to reform things like the children’s care system and protecting children in schools.

Will a vote take place?

Whether a vote takes place is up to the Speaker of the House of Commons.

It is impossible to know if he will choose the amendment – however, amendments in the name of the leader of the Opposition and supported by the shadow cabinet do tend to get selected so they can be debated.

However, a “reasoned amendment” has to be formulated in a specific way – notably, it needs to give a specific reason for the opposition to the bill.

Erksine May – the rulebook for the House of Commons – says the usual way is to use a form of words like “this House declines to give a second reading to a bill which …”, or “to the … Bill because …”.

This is instead of just voting against the bill in general, something achieved through the normal vote.

The last time such a bill was successful in killing legislation was in 1986.

Margaret Thatcher’s attempts to reform Sunday trading legislation were halted at that time by a Labour Party led by Neil Kinnock.

However, proceedings were a bit confused. The Speaker initially refused to allow MPs to vote on Mr Kinnock’s amendment – and then changed his mind halfway through the debate.

With a significant number of Tory rebels, Mrs Thatcher was defeated following a late night vote.

What are the parties saying?

Since Ms Badenoch’s announcement on Monday, the Conservatives have doubled down on their position.

A spokesperson for the party said: “Labour are looking for any excuse to get out of holding a much-needed national inquiry into child rape grooming gangs.

“Labour’s attempts to hide behind parliamentary procedure and take the debate away from victims will not save them from their moral cowardice, and their failure to give victims the answers they deserve.

“Labour MPs now have the chance to do the right thing, and vote for justice.”

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Labour, meanwhile, says previous inquiries have carried out the work necessary to look into grooming gangs.

It says it plans to implement all the recommendations from the Jay review, and will announce more details in the Crime and Policing Bill at a point later this year.