“The original source of this allegations has expressly accepted Mr Brown was not involved at all,” he added, referring to Nazir Afzal, the former chief prosecutor who brought the first convictions of a gang in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, in 2011.

“Moreover, there is no evidence that such words or actions now attributed to him by Elon Musk have ever been used by Mr Brown, because he neither said nor did them.

“When it comes to the exploitation and abuse of children and young women by sex grooming gangs, the priority for all people in public life should be to secure justice for the survivors, punishment for the perpetrators, and action at local and national level to ensure that these kind of horrific crimes can never be allowed to happen again.

“But that collective endeavour is undermined when some individuals and media outlets instead propagate outright lies about the reasons that these crimes happened in the past.”

Afzal, who went on to prosecute hundreds of men from child sex abuse gangs, said some police officers had wrongly interpreted Home Office guidance, external “to mean that lifestyle choice was a factor in whether or not victims were safeguarded”.