U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday hit back against attacks over his handling of the child grooming gang scandal that has repeatedly rocked the nation, and has seen more scrutiny in the last week fueled by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible, they’re not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves,” Starmer said in response to questions from reporters about Musk’s comments, although he did not mention Musk directly.

The U.K. grooming scandal, where it was revealed that gangs of predominantly South Asian or British Pakistani men had exploited and abused children for decades in towns in northern England, resurfaced last week amid fresh calls for a national inquiry.

He also criticized politicians he said “are casual about honesty, decency, truth and the rule of law, calling for inquiries because they want to jump on a bandwagon of the far-right.”

Musk shot back.

“What an insane thing to say! The real reason is that it would show how Starmer repeatedly ignored the pleas of vast numbers of little girls and their parents, in order to secure political support. Starmer is utterly despicable,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.