Keir Starmer must hold his nerve – it won’t be long until the Musk slips

Keir Starmer should be very afraid. The pinned tweet on Musk’s X account this morning said: “Free Tommy Robinson!” It stays at the top of his page while, underneath, he describes Starmer as the “head of the Crown Prosecution Service when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice”; and calls for Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, to be in prison. Many of the child victims of sexual exploitation by Muslim men were undoubtedly failed by the justice system – but Starmer was one of many public servants who worked to put those failures right. It was a comment by Liz Truss on a GB News report about Phillips that prompted Musk to reply: “She deserves to be in prison.” This is a standard theme of extreme language typical of social media and was echoed by Donald Trump with his “Lock her up” chant in the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. Starmer should be worried by Musk’s use of his social media platform to try to destabilise him – but he should hold his nerve.