In an attempt to attack UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, tech billionaire Elon Musk has “politicised” the rape of young girls, overlooking the plight of the survivors,  former health worker Sara Rowbotham who exposed a major paedophile ring.

The Tesla owner, who will have a key role in Donald Trump’s incoming administration, on Friday called on King Charles to step in and dissolve parliament after Labour rejected a call for a national inquiry into child grooming.

Musk triggered the row on Thursday over Starmer’s handling of child abuse in Oldham after he suggested the PM had failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.

Rowbotham, who made hundreds of referrals detailing the abuse and sexual grooming while working for the NHS in Rochdale between 2005 and 2011, was quoted by the Guardian saying, “What is [Musk’s] motivation for interfering? It seems very political.

The person he is trying to go after is Keir Starmer – it is a political swipe that is nothing to do with the women and girls who have been abused time after time.”

Musk, who owns X, formerly Twitter, has used the social media site to post or repost about child grooming in the UK more than 40 times over the past 24 hours. Several posts are from UK MPs, including Reform UK’s Rupert Lowe and the Tories’ Robert Jenrick, while others include a video featuring the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who in October was jailed for 18 months for contempt of court.

On Friday, Musk shared a post asking whether the King “should dissolve parliament and order a general election … for the sake and security” of the UK. He retweeted the X thread with a one-word comment: “Yes.”