When Elon Musk requested his 211 million followers on X to vote on whether or not “America ought to free the folks of Nice Britain from their tyrannical authorities,” it appeared the submit might solely be tongue-in-cheek.
However it comes after a barrage of scathing posts about Britain from Mr Musk – assaults on Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer; a requirement for the discharge of an arrested far-right agitator; and break with hard-right leader Nigel Farage — got here off much less as a joke than the manipulation of a strong man reveling in his capacity to fire up one other nation’s politics.
Mr Musk’s posts, which popped up on X all vacation like undesirable visitors at a Christmas social gathering, utterly hijacked the political debate in Britain in early 2025.
On Monday Mr Starmer used press conference on correcting Britain’s Nationwide Well being Service to disclaim Mr Musk’s claims that he did not act when he was Britain’s lawyer normal greater than a decade in the past in opposition to gangs that sexually abuse women.
Mr Farage, for his half, confronted questions on his future as chief of the right-wing anti-immigration Reform UK social gathering after Mr Musk instructed X on Sunday that “Farage doesn’t have what it takes.” A day later, Mr Farage revealed a name for a nationwide inquiry into little one sexual abuse, choosing up one among Mr Musk’s favourite causes.
“Musk has a really distorted understanding of British politics and but he has a megaphone,” stated Robert Ford, a professor of politics on the College of Manchester. “When he says this stuff at 3am on a Sunday night time, it disrupts Labour’s entire NHS press convention on Monday.”
The long-term impact of Mr Musk’s erratic campaign was more durable to foretell, Professor Ford stated, however a few of his strikes might backfire. His rift with Mr Farage, for instance, could possibly be to Mr Farage’s benefit.
The doubtless motive for the cut up is Mr Farage’s refusal to again Mr Musk’s demand to launch the far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson. Mr Robinson, whose actual identify is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is serving a jail sentence for disobeying a courtroom order by repeating defamation in opposition to a younger Syrian refugee. He has a number of felony convictions and a document of racist and Islamophobic speech.
In Britain, Professor Ford stated: “Tommy Robinson is political kryptonite. There’s a motive Farage needs nothing to do with him and by no means has.”
By rejecting Mr Robinson in defiance of Mr Musk, he stated, Mr Farage might endear himself to core voters on the proper who’re disenchanted with the Conservatives. Mr Musk, he added, may even discover there aren’t any clear alternate options for social gathering chief to Mr Farage, the architect of Brexit and a decades-long follower of right-wing British politics who pushed Reform UK throughout final 12 months’s election marketing campaign.
For Mr Starmer, who returned from a uncommon vacation that needed to be postponed because of the demise of his brother, Mr Musk’s intervention was one other setback after a troubled begin to his newly shaped authorities. Along with his private rankings falling in opinion polls, Mr Starmer hoped to start out 2025 by introducing a plan to chop NHS affected person ready instances
As a substitute, reporters requested him about Mr Musk, who falsely claimed Mr Starmer had coated up the abuse and exploitation of ladies within the 2000s and 2010s by gang members, lots of whom had been of British-Pakistani origin . “Jail for StarmerMr Musk wrote in a submit on Monday morning.
“It should have irritated him past phrases to need to cope with such issues,” stated Stephen Fielding, emeritus professor of political historical past on the College of Nottingham. The prime minister, he stated, was attempting to keep away from a “road combat” with Mr Musk and give attention to governing.
Mr Starmer famous that when he was Director of Crown Prosecutions, between 2008 and 2013, his workplace filed the primary of a number of instances in opposition to a wedding ring and drafted tips for necessary reporting of kid sexual abuse. He had taken on the scandal “intensely”, he stated.
The prime minister grew to become visibly indignant as she defended Jess Phillips, the minister for defense and violence in opposition to girls and women, in opposition to Mr Musk’s accusation that she was an “apologist for rape genocide” as she pushed again in opposition to requires a nationwide inquiry into sexual relations with little one exploitation in Oldham, a city close to Manchester.
As a substitute, Ms Phillips known as for the inquiry to be carried out by Oldham authorities fairly than central authorities. Mr Starmer stated she had performed “a thousand instances greater than they even dreamed of when it got here to defending victims of sexual abuse”.
Elizabeth Pearson, writer of a e book on the British far-right, Excessive Britain, stated Mr Robinson, who was convicted of assault and fraud, was fortunate to have “the eye of one of the crucial highly effective folks within the West . “
She and different analysts are extra puzzled about what Mr Musk stands to realize from backing a disgraced determine who has occupied the generally violent fringes of British politics. Day by day customers of X within the UK have declined since Mr Musk took over the platform previously often called Twitter; assist for Mr. Robinson’s trigger, consultants stated, is unlikely to reverse that pattern.
“That is it foreign interference in our system,” stated Dr Pearson, senior lecturer at Royal Holloway, College of London. “I really feel proper now that Musk is changing into a nasty actor who’s out to destabilize our system.”
Professor Fielding stated Mr Musk was doubtless catering to his viewers in the US. The danger, he stated, is that “anybody who’s severe within the US administration will suppose that this man is creating fires which are completely pointless.”
Mr. Musk’s activism has raised alarm in different European nations, akin to Germany, the place he supported a far-right party with neo-Nazi ties. On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron instructed a diplomatic viewers: “Ten years in the past, who would have thought that the proprietor of one of many greatest social networks on this planet would assist a brand new worldwide reactionary motion.” He didn’t point out Mr Musk by identify .
Equally, Mr. Starmer confirmed no urge for food to single out Mr. Musk, a detailed ally of President-elect Donald J. Trump, with whom Mr Starmer and his aides have tried to domesticate a relationship. “This isn’t about America or Musk,” he instructed a reporter on Monday. “I am speaking about our politics.”
