Multi-billionaire Elon Musk has accused Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being "deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes".
Mr Musk has published a series of posts on X suggesting Starmer failed to deal with the grooming gang scandal while head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) between 2008 and 2013.
In response, Sir Keir has accused critics of "spreading lies and misinformation" and claims he tackled prosecutions "head on".
What is the grooming gang scandal?
The row between Mr Musk and Sir Keir centres around a series of high-profile cases where groups of men - mainly of Pakistani descent - were convicted of sexually abusing and raping predominantly young white girls around the UK.
In 2012 The Times newspaper investigated Rotherham grooming gangs, which led to a major inquiry.
At least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, according to a 2014 report written by Prof Alexis Jay.
The report made headlines in the UK and around the world and led to major debates in Parliament.
Similar scandals also occurred in other towns, including Oldham, Oxford, Rochdale and Telford, leading to a national inquiry into child sexual abuse, which was also led by Prof Jay.
The cases sparked investigations into alleged failures to properly address the crimes and support victims.
Was the CPS or Starmer 'complicit'?
The CPS, an independent body, prosecutes criminal cases in England and Wales.
After the police investigate crimes and present their findings, the CPS decides whether to prosecute based on evidence and public interest.
Sir Keir was appointed head of the CPS in 2008 and held the role for five years. He became an MP in 2015.
The CPS was criticised for a decision not to proceed with a prosecution in Rochdale on the basis that it viewed the main victim as "unreliable" following an investigation between August 2008 and August 2009.
That decision was overturned later by Nazir Afzal in 2011 after being appointed by Sir Keir as the CPS chief prosecutor for north-west England.
Speaking to BBC Verify, Mr Afzal said that the view of prosecutors not to proceed to trial at the time was "if the police aren't happy that she will give credible evidence then we're not happy either".
He went on to say that he had reviewed and reversed the decision as "I believed what she [the victim] was saying".
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But this is not the only instance where the CPS has faced criticism.
Prof Jay's report into the Rotherham cases said the police would often cite the CPS as being unwilling to prosecute alleged perpetrators, but they said that it had been "much more helpful" later on.
A 2013 report from the Home Affairs Committee said that "unlike many other official agencies implicated in this issue", the CPS had "readily admitted that victims had been let down by them and have attempted both to discover the cause of this systematic failure and to improve the way things are done so as to avoid a repetition of such events".
It added: "Mr Starmer has striven to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his term as Director of Public Prosecution (DPP)."
Mr Musk has published a series of posts on X suggesting Starmer failed to deal with the grooming gang scandal while head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) between 2008 and 2013.
In response, Sir Keir has accused critics of "spreading lies and misinformation" and claims he tackled prosecutions "head on".
What is the grooming gang scandal?
The row between Mr Musk and Sir Keir centres around a series of high-profile cases where groups of men - mainly of Pakistani descent - were convicted of sexually abusing and raping predominantly young white girls around the UK.
In 2012 The Times newspaper investigated Rotherham grooming gangs, which led to a major inquiry.
At least 1,400 children were subjected to appalling sexual exploitation in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, according to a 2014 report written by Prof Alexis Jay.
The report made headlines in the UK and around the world and led to major debates in Parliament.
Similar scandals also occurred in other towns, including Oldham, Oxford, Rochdale and Telford, leading to a national inquiry into child sexual abuse, which was also led by Prof Jay.
The cases sparked investigations into alleged failures to properly address the crimes and support victims.
Was the CPS or Starmer 'complicit'?
The CPS, an independent body, prosecutes criminal cases in England and Wales.
After the police investigate crimes and present their findings, the CPS decides whether to prosecute based on evidence and public interest.
Sir Keir was appointed head of the CPS in 2008 and held the role for five years. He became an MP in 2015.
The CPS was criticised for a decision not to proceed with a prosecution in Rochdale on the basis that it viewed the main victim as "unreliable" following an investigation between August 2008 and August 2009.
That decision was overturned later by Nazir Afzal in 2011 after being appointed by Sir Keir as the CPS chief prosecutor for north-west England.
Speaking to BBC Verify, Mr Afzal said that the view of prosecutors not to proceed to trial at the time was "if the police aren't happy that she will give credible evidence then we're not happy either".
He went on to say that he had reviewed and reversed the decision as "I believed what she [the victim] was saying".
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But this is not the only instance where the CPS has faced criticism.
Prof Jay's report into the Rotherham cases said the police would often cite the CPS as being unwilling to prosecute alleged perpetrators, but they said that it had been "much more helpful" later on.
A 2013 report from the Home Affairs Committee said that "unlike many other official agencies implicated in this issue", the CPS had "readily admitted that victims had been let down by them and have attempted both to discover the cause of this systematic failure and to improve the way things are done so as to avoid a repetition of such events".
It added: "Mr Starmer has striven to improve the treatment of victims of sexual assault within the criminal justice system throughout his term as Director of Public Prosecution (DPP)."
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