By Elizabeth Piper and Sachin Ravikumar
LONDON (Reuters) -Keir Starmer defended his work as Britain's top prosecutor on Monday, refusing to mention U.S. billionaire Elon Musk by name but addressing Musk's criticism that, long before he became prime minister, he had failed to prosecute gangs who sexually abused girls.
Musk, an ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has spent days posting messages on his social media site X accusing Starmer of what he said was a failure to prosecute gangs of men, mostly of a South Asian background, who raped young girls when he was director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
Starmer declined to address some of Musk's other messages on X - including a poll asking whether the United States should liberate the UK from its "tyrannical government" - but strongly defended his record as DPP, saying he had overcome resistance to tackling the allegations by reopening cases.
"When I was chief prosecutor for five years, I tackled that head-on ... and that's why I reopened cases that had been closed and supposedly finished. I brought the first major prosecution of an Asian grooming gang ... I changed the whole prosecution approach," he told a press conference, visibly angry.
"Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they are interested in themselves."
Musk continued to refer to the scandal on X after Starmer spoke, including saying "Starmer is utterly despicable".
Starmer has refrained from commenting on Musk's increasingly critical comments of his premiership, not wanting to engage in a public slanging match with someone who could influence Trump's thinking on ties with Britain.
But his impatience was clear at the press conference when he tackled the allegations over cases involving the gangs who systematically groomed and raped girls over a period of years, some of which coincided with his time as DPP.
A 2014 inquiry found at least 1,400 children were subjected to sexual exploitation in Rotherham, northern England, between 1997 and 2013.
FARAGE ALSO MUSK TARGET
Saying he was making a more general point rather than directly addressing Musk's comments, Starmer also defended his safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, whom the U.S. billionaire described as a "rape genocide apologist" in another message.
"I am prepared to call out this for what it is ... When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats ... in my book, a line has been crossed," he said.
Starmer had wanted to discuss his plans to bring down waiting lists in Britain's health service, promising to hit the so-called 18-week referral-to-treatment target by the end of this parliament, due to end in a new election in 2029.
He sees reforming the National Health Service as one way to win over voters critical of his first months in power, when he limited winter fuel payments to some pensioners and set out the highest tax-raising budget since 1993.
But Musk's comments yet again overshadowed the prime minister's attempts to set out his government's priorities.
Starmer is not Musk's only focus. On Sunday, Musk said Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage should quit as leader of Britain's right-wing Reform Party.
He has also endorsed the Alternative for Germany party, an anti-immigration, anti-Islamic party labelled as right-wing extremist by German security services, before a national election and will host party leader Alice Weidel in a live interview on X on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said while Musk was allowed to express his views on European politics, X must adhere to rules in the EU's Digital Services Act, under which large online platforms have to analyse and mitigate potential risks for electoral processes and civic discourse.
"The DSA doesn't censor any type of content," the spokesperson said. "But there are certain limits to that, and especially when a platform is used or misused in such a context."