Louise Haigh, who was previously Transport Secretary, called on the Labour Party and the Government to ditch Elon Musk's X after its AI chatbot was used for sexualised deepfakes
13:16, 08 Jan 2026Updated 15:41, 08 Jan 2026
A former Cabinet minister has called on the Labour Party and the Government to ditch Elon Musk's X "entirely" after its artificial intelligence chatbot was used to create sexualised deepfake images of kids.
Louise Haigh, who was previously Transport Secretary, accused the social media platform of having enabled child sexual abuse and said it is now "unconscionable to use the site for another minute".
Keir Starmer demanded that X urgently “get their act together” after its AI tool Grok was used to make sexualised images of children. In his first comments on the row, the Prime Minister suggested the law had been broken and warned that the UK is “not going to tolerate it”.
Ofcom this week made “urgent contact” with Musk’s X and xAI over "serious concerns" its AI tool, Grok, has made sexualised images of kids on the platform. It said it was aware of a feature on Grok, a chatbot developed by xAI, that creates undressed images of people and sexualised images of children.
READ MORE: UK could ban Elon Musk's X for government use after deepfake 'disgrace'Mr Starmer today told Greatest Hits Radio: "It's 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 needs to get their act together and get this material down. And we will take action on this because it's simply not tolerable.”
In a post on the site, Ms Haigh 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. 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."
Ms Haigh quit the Government in November 2024 after admitting she had pleaded guilty to a fraud offence over a mobile phone theft in 2014.
Downing Street yesterday said "all options were on the table" including a boycott of X as ministers backed media regulator Ofcom to take action. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "What we've seen on Grok is a disgrace. It is completely unacceptable.
"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 spokesman said: "All options are on the table."
Downing Street's comments came after Technology Secretary Liz Kendall ordered Musk’s social media firm to deal with this “urgently” and gave Ofcom her full backing to take any necessary enforcement action against X or xAI. She said: "Make no mistake - the UK will not tolerate the endless proliferation of disgusting and abusive material online. We must all come together to stamp it out."
Users of X appear to have prompted Grok, which is integrated into the platform, to generate images of children "in minimal clothing". A post on Grok’s X account on Friday admitted the company has “identified lapses in safeguards and are urgently fixing them—CSAM (child sexual abuse material) is illegal and prohibited”.
On Saturday, Musk said: “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
Grok's account on X responded to an article about Ms Kendall’s comments, saying: "We appreciate the feedback and take concerns about deepfakes seriously. xAI is actively enhancing Grok's safeguards to prevent harmful content, including better blocking of inappropriate prompts. We're committed to complying with regulations and supporting a safer online environment."
On Wednesday Musk said a new version of Grok had been released and urged users to update their app. It is not clear what updates the new version contains.
Ngaire Alexander, head of hotline at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a child sexual abuse watchdog, said its analysts have discovered "criminal imagery" of children aged between 11 and 13 which appears to have been created using Grok.
She said: “The imagery we have seen so far is not on X itself, but a dark web forum where users claim they have used Grok Imagine to create the imagery, which includes sexualised and topless imagery of girls. The imagery we have seen would be considered Category C imagery under UK law.
“The user then uses the Grok imagery as a jumping off point to create much more extreme, Category A, video using a different AI tool. The harms are rippling out. There is no excuse for releasing products to the global public which can be used to abuse and hurt people, especially children.
“We are extremely concerned about the ease and speed with which people can apparently generate photo-realistic child sexual abuse material. Tools like Grok now risk bringing sexual AI imagery of children into the mainstream. That is unacceptable.”