Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer offers a speech on lowering NHS wait occasions as he visits a well being care supplier in Surrey, England, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025.
Leon Neal/AP/Pool Getty Pictures Europe
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Leon Neal/AP/Pool Getty Pictures Europe
LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday condemned “lies and misinformation” that he mentioned are undermining U.Ok. democracy, in response to a barrage of assaults on his authorities from Elon Musk.
The billionaire Tesla CEO has taken an intense and erratic curiosity in British politics because the center-left Labour Get together was elected in July. Musk has used his social community, X, to name for a brand new election and demand Starmer be imprisoned. On Monday he posted an internet ballot for his 210 million followers on the proposition: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”
Requested about Musk’s feedback throughout a query session at a hospital close to London, Starmer criticized “those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible,” notably opposition Conservative politicians in Britain who’ve echoed a few of Musk’s claims.
Musk typically posts on X in regards to the U.Ok., retweeting criticism of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir -– shorthand for an unsubstantiated declare that Britain has “two-tier policing” with far-right protesters handled extra harshly than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Throughout summer time anti-immigrant violence throughout the U.Ok. he tweeted that “civil war is inevitable.”
Not too long ago Musk has targeted on baby sexual abuse, notably a sequence of circumstances that rocked northern England cities by which teams of males, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, had been tried for grooming and abusing dozens of women. The circumstances have been utilized by far-right activists to hyperlink baby abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of masking up the “grooming gangs” out of a concern of showing racist.
Musk has posted a requirement for a brand new public inquiry into the circumstances. An enormous, seven-year inquiry was held underneath the earlier Conservative authorities, although most of the 20 suggestions it made in 2022 — together with compensation for abuse victims — have but to be carried out. Starmer’s authorities mentioned it will act on them as rapidly as potential.
Musk additionally has accused Starmer of failing to carry perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
Starmer defended his report as chief prosecutor, saying he had reopened closed circumstances and “changed the whole prosecution approach” to baby sexual exploitation.
He additionally condemned language utilized by Musk about Jess Phillips, a authorities minister chargeable for combating violence towards ladies and women. Musk known as Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and mentioned she deserved to be in jail.
“When the poison of the far-right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed,” Starmer mentioned. “I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have, but that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies.”
Musk has additionally known as for the discharge of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a far-right activist who goes by the title Tommy Robinson and is serving a jail sentence for contempt of court docket.
Starmer mentioned folks “cheerleading Tommy Robinson … are trying to get some vicarious thrill from street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”
Starmer largely averted mentioning Musk by title in his responses, probably cautious of giving him extra of a highlight — or of angering Musk ally Donald Trump, who is because of be inaugurated as U.S. president on Jan. 20.
Musk’s incendiary interventions are a rising fear for governments elsewhere in Europe, too. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, one other goal of the X proprietor’s ire, mentioned he’s staying “cool” over important private feedback made by Musk, however finds it worrying that the U.S. billionaire makes the trouble to become involved in Germany’s election by endorsing the far-right Various for Germany (AfD) get together.
Starmer mentioned the principle concern was not Musk’s posts on X, however “what are politicians here doing to stand up for our democracy?”
He mentioned he was involved about Conservative politicians in Britain “so desperate for attention they are amplifying what the far right are saying.”
“Once we lose the anchor that truth matters … then we are on a very slippery slope,” he mentioned.
Whereas some Conservatives, together with get together chief Kemi Badenoch, have echoed Musk’s factors, the principle U.Ok. beneficiary of his curiosity has been Reform U.Ok., the hard-right get together led by Nigel Farage that has simply 5 seats within the 650-seat Home of Commons however massive enlargement plans. Farage mentioned final month that Musk was contemplating making a multimillion-dollar donation to the get together.
However Farage is important of Tommy Robinson, refusing to let him be part of Reform, and on Sunday Musk posted: “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Farage tweeted in response: “Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree.”
