Elon Musk has hit back at the UK government after he was not invited to an international investment summit following his controversial social media posts during last month’s riots.
Musk said on X on Thursday: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted pedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts.”
He seemed to be referring to the prison early release scheme, initiated by the Labour government to ease pressure on a system it has said is “on the point of collapse” due to a lack of capacity.
The billionaire owner of X has used the platform to suggest civil war in Britain is “inevitable”, and to criticise Keir Starmer as rioting broke out after disinformation spread about the killing of three children in Southport.
Ministers initially said the early release scheme would not apply to the most serious offenders, but later confirmed that prisoners who had completed a sentence for a serious crime and were serving a consecutive sentence for a lesser one would qualify. But sex offenders are excluded from the early release programme.
Musk’s latest broadside came after it emerged he is not invited to a global investment summit in Britain on 14 October. The government hopes the event will be a boost for investment in the UK two weeks before the autumn budget. Government sources confirmed Musk was not invited.
Musk took centre stage in November last year at a UK summit on AI, where the then Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, played the role of a chatshow host and flattered the entrepreneur during a 40-minute in-person conversation.
However, Musk’s attitude towards the UK has changed since then as he has shifted increasingly to the right in the US. He has emerged as a supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
In August, Musk shared a fake Telegraph article claiming Keir Starmer was considering sending far-right rioters to “emergency detainment camps” in the Falklands. Musk deleted his post after about 30 minutes but a screenshot captured by politics.co.uk suggested it had garnered nearly 2m views before it was deleted.
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In the post, Musk shared the image posted by Ashlea Simon, the co-leader of the far-right group Britain First, which she captioned: “We’re all being deported to the Falklands.”
Musk was responding on Thursday to a tweet by Mario Nawfal, a self-described “founder and investor”, who has emerged as a would-be influencer on X since Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Citing the BBC as a source, Nawfal had tweeted: “UK snubs Elon because he criticised oppression of free speech.”
Business leaders have said plans for the summit are in danger of falling flat, amid growing frustrations over the high cost of involvement and the timing before the budget.
Several business leaders at Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool said the event was at risk of failing to live up to its high-profile billing because it would take place while ministers were still thrashing out the details of several major economic decisions before the budget on 30 October.