One of the stranger characteristics of the populist oligarchy mobilising around Donald Trump’s new administration is the interest taken in the domestic politics of the UK. Barely a day has passed so far this year without Elon Musk making some hysterical declaration about one or other British politician.
“Starmer must go,” he announced on X. “He is a national embarrassment.”
The cause of the embarrassment, according to the world’s richest man, was Keir Starmer’s handling of so-called Asian grooming gangs when he was director of public prosecutions. The gangs, made up largely of Pakistani-heritage men in the north of England, have returned to the headlines in recent weeks as various politicians, vying for Musk’s support, have called for a national inquiry.
When stories of large-scale sexual exploitation of young girls in towns like Rotherham and Rochdale first began circulating, there was a reluctance among the police and other authorities to confront these terrible crimes, due to an anxiety about appearing racist.
That much has been established in a number of official reports. But it’s simply wrong and wholly inaccurate to blame any of it on Starmer – even Musk’s X post had a “reader’s added context” warning note attached that pointed out the falsity of the claim.
Musk also called Jess Phillips, the UK’s minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, a “rape genocide apologist”, which inspired violent threats against the minister. The billionaire targeted Phillips because she had rejected calls for a national inquiry into the gangs, arguing there had already been an inquiry and the task in hand was to urgently implement its recommendations.
Not content with savaging Labour politicians, Musk also turned his ire on erstwhile chum Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, for blocking the serial criminal and street thug Tommy Robinson from joining his party. Farage “doesn’t have what it takes”, declared Musk, and called for a new Reform UK leader.
Anyone who displeases Trump or his coterie, for whatever reason, however unrelated to American policy, can now expect to be pilloried and denounced in the most damning (and false) terms.
The question for British politicians is what to do about it? Do they want to risk provoking Trump or Musk by standing up for themselves? Both men are hugely powerful, proudly vindictive and like nothing more than setting the mob on their named enemies.
Given the precarious state of British politics, with the Labour government already deeply unpopular, the Conservative opposition flailing and irrelevant, and the Trump-ish Reform party waiting in the wings, few individuals have the popularity or political capital to take on these cartoonishly intimidating figures across the Atlantic.
Farage has consistently sucked up to Trump, calling Musk a “hero” only hours before the American said he should resign, and acting as if he’s as thick as thieves with the twin disrupters. But the mere act of telling a far-right street fighter that he was unwelcome in an already very right-wing party was enough for the Reform leader to be swiftly put in his place.
It has been estimated that Trump’s threatened trade tariffs would wipe 1% off the British economy, quite possibly sending it into recession. And it’s not as if we can seek protection from the European Union. So it looks as if Starmer must get used to eating crap and wearing an expression that suggests he likes the taste.
He’s not alone. In Westminster right now, most politicians have begun to resemble those white-collar criminals who find themselves locked up in the same prison wing as a hot-tempered Mafia boss. The next four years will seem like a very long stretch.
