Former Labour minister tells Starmer’s government to quit X

A former Labour cabinet minister has called on the government to quit social media platform X (Twitter) amid concerns about the creation of sexualised images of adults and children.

In an intervention which will pile pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to take a stand against the platform, owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, Louise Haigh said it was “unconscionable to use the site for another minute”.

She called on the Labour Party and government to “remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality”.

It came as the prime minister demanded that X urgently “get their act together” and threatened to take action against the platform following reports that its AI tool Grok is being used to make sexualised images of children.

But ministers have so far rejected calls for a boycott, with a government source telling The Independent: “We will not be bullied out of a public space. It is up to Elon Musk to make sure this is a platform where everyone can feel welcome.”

An internet safety organisation said its analysts have confirmed the existence of “criminal imagery of children aged between 11 and 13 which appears to have been created using the (Grok) tool”.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said the material was being shared in a dark web forum by users “boasting how they had used Grok, and how easy it had been”.

In a post to X, Ms Haigh, who resigned as transport secretary last year after it emerged she had previously been convicted of a fraud offence, said: “I have not personally used X/Twitter for some time now. It was already an unpleasant place prior to its takeover by Elon Musk, but since his acceptance of hate speech and anonymous online abusers, it has become utterly unusable.

“I continued to maintain an account and occasionally post because a critical mass of people, including the government and journalists who we need to communicate with as MPs, remained on the site.

“However, the revelations around the enablement, if not encouragement, of child sexual abuse mean it is unconscionable to use the site for another minute.”

She added: “I call on my party and my government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality.”

Her intervention came just one day after the Women and Equalities Committee confirmed it had stopped using the social media platform, piling pressure on Downing Street to stage a boycott.

Committee chair Sarah Owen, who stopped using X in 2024, said she and her colleagues no longer see it as appropriate to use the platform to share their work.

In a letter to Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, Ms Owen said: “It is surely no longer tenable for the government to have a continued presence on such a platform, not least given the government’s mission in tackling violence against women and girls.”

Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio on Thursday, Sir Keir said: “This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting. And it’s not to be tolerated.

“X has got to get a grip of this. And Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this. This is wrong. It’s unlawful.

“We’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table.

“It’s disgusting. And X need to get their act together and get this material down. And we will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”

The prime minister’s official spokesperson described what had happened with the creation of sexualised images on Grok as “a disgrace” and “completely unacceptable”.

The No 10 spokesperson added: “No one should have to go through the ordeal of seeing intimate deepfakes of themselves online and we won’t allow the proliferation of these demeaning images.

“X needs to deal with this urgently, and Ofcom has our full backing to take enforcement action wherever firms are failing to protect UK users.

“It already has the power to issue fines of up to billions of pounds and even stop access to a site that is violating the law.

“And when it comes to keeping people safe online, all options remain on the table.”

Asked if the government would stop using the app, the spokesperson said: “All options are on the table.”

A post this month on the Grok X account said that there have been “isolated cases where users prompted for and received AI images depicting minors in minimal clothing”, and added: “AI has safeguards, but improvements are ongoing to block such requests entirely.”