How Westminster became obsessed with paedophiles

[Jim Burton]

https://www.economist.com/britain/2025/ ... aedophiles

“Starmer is a paedo,” chanted a group of bald men outside Waterloo station, on their way to the “Unite the Kingdom” march organised by the far right in Westminster. On Whitehall, amid a sea of union flags and Stone Island, a fashion label beloved by a certain type of football fan, a sign appeared: “Boycott groomers & PAEDO’S businesses, be loyal to our kids”. Outside Downing Street, a banner read “KEEP OUR GIRLS SAFE” above a picture of a man in a keffiyeh, riding off with a teen on a moped.

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Westminster has turned paedophilia into a dividing line, with politicians of all colours trying to shove their opponents across it. Peter Kyle, the recently promoted business secretary, suggested that without the Online Safety Act paedophiles such as Jimmy Savile, once a national treasure who turned out to be a child abuser, would have free rein. If anyone missed the subtext, Mr Kyle made it text: “Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side.”

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It is not just tabloid readers who turn into confused vigilantes when paedophiles are involved. A parliamentary equivalent existed in the 2010s, as Britain digested a steady stream of entertainers such as Savile turning out to be abusers. Tom Watson, then an influential backbencher, accused ageing politicos of being in a paedophile ring and was dubbed the “nonce finder general” by the Daily Mail. It was nonsense. No matter. He later became deputy leader of the Labour Party and now sits in the House of Lords, where he made an apology of sorts. Paedo-hunters thrive at all levels of British society, whether they wear Stone Island or ermine.

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What began as a justified reckoning for decades of failure has morphed into something uglier, permeating every level of society from football terraces to the top of politics. Elon Musk, the owner of X, a platform to which Westminster’s inhabitants are addicted, was able to trigger weeks of rows by highlighting the horror of “grooming gangs”, referring to the abuse of tens of thousands of young girls, often by Asian men, in mostly northern towns in the 1990s and 2000s. British politics exploded into a bout of inquiry-commissioning. Any case of a brown man attacking a young white girl is now leapt on by the far right. And so on September 13th Mr Musk appeared on a jumbotron in Whitehall, calling for the six-figure-strong crowd to overthrow the government to protect “children who are getting gang-raped”.

Faced with such a threat, politicians who once tacked to the centre now look to the fringe. An idea that to stave off populism one must embrace its tactics has taken root in Westminster. The result? Mainstream politicians, from prime ministers down, now label their opponents as evil rather than just wrong. In such an environment, it does not take long before abhorrent accusations become the norm. Since the likes of Mr Musk and friends can go further, it is a game moderate politicians can never win.