Lisa Nandy has said she “utterly refutes” claims Elon Musk’s intervention on UK grooming gangs prompted action from the government.
The culture secretary told Sky News: “We’re not a government that conducts government by social media.”
Tech billionaire and Trump ally Mr Musk spent the first fortnight of 2025 accusing the government of failing to do enough about the historical grooming gangs scandal, attacking Sir Keir Starmer and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips specifically.
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On Thursday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced a plan for government-backed local grooming gang inquiries and other measures she said would support victims of the scandal that saw organised gangs across the UK’s towns and cities sexually exploiting hundreds of vulnerable young women and girls.
Put to Ms Nandy that Mr Musk’s intervention prompted action from the government, she said: “I utterly refute that.
“We brought forward the Children’s Wellbeing Bill a couple of weeks ago. That is legislation that we announced, quite significantly in advance of any noise that we saw on social media.
“We’ve been very focused on this issue, and it was part of our manifesto.
“We were very outspoken about it in opposition, and we’ve continued to be outspoken about it in government and waste no time in acting.”
She added: “These things can’t be magicked up overnight, we’ve been working on them for a very long time.”
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The culture secretary, who previously dismissed calls for any further grooming gangs inquiries, said the government’s announcement of new local inquiries was a “review of the existing evidence” to ensure the proper data is collected on issues such as ethnicity.
“So that we really fully understand the pattern of behaviour and the drivers that are contributing to this horrendous phenomenon that we’ve seen in many, many towns across the UK,” she said.
Ms Nandy added the 20 recommendations made by Professor Alexis Jay after her seven-year national inquiry was published in 2022 would be implemented by the Labour government.
Read more:
A timeline of the grooming gangs scandal
Why Musk is interested – analysis
The grooming gangs scandal returned to the headlines at the beginning of January after it emerged safeguarding minister Ms Phillips had 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.
Mr Musk jumped on the news and attacked both Ms Phillips and Sir Keir repeatedly on his social media platform X for the PM’s response to the scandal while he was director of public prosecutions.
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The prime minister hit back at Mr Musk, saying his record shows how he tackled the issue head-on.
Opposition MPs have called for a national inquiry but the government has said there already was one – carried out by Professor Jay.
