Will Starmer respond to Elon Musk's online criticism?

Elon Musk has spent the past week on X criticising Sir Keir Starmer over the government not launching an inquiry in grooming gangs Credit: AP

In spite of Elon Musk’s personal attacks on the prime minister, and his endorsement of vicious criticism, I understand that Keir Starmer is still unwilling to engage in a direct argument with the world’s richest person and his social media platform.

Tomorrow, however, I do expect Starmer to defend his record prosecuting child abusers as Director or Public Prosecutions and the determination of his government to clamp down hard on it.

He’ll also talk about the importance of grounding political debate in verifiable fact.

Most of this, I assume, will be heard by Musk as water off his back, as it were.

I am not sure Starmer’s appeal to Musk’s presumed respect for empirical argument will resonate much with a plutocrat whose X followers number three times the entire UK population.

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