Elon Musk raged against Keir Starmer last night after Downing Street rebuked the tech billionaire for a tweet claiming a UK “civil war” was inevitable. He then responded to an offensive cartoon on so-called “two-tier policing” saying: “It does seem one-sided”.
The phrase “two-tier policing” is used by people who claim that some protests are treated more harshly by officers than others.
The Prime Minister’s spokesperson said there was “no justification for comments like that”. At the same time, his technology minister met with social media representatives from major companies, including X, to urge them to clamp down on online hate.
But a few hours later, Musk hit out at Keir Starmer again by directly responding to a video posted by the PM emphasising that attacks on Muslims and mosques would not be tolerated.
Speaking to his 193 million followers, Musk responded: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?”
A day earlier, responding to a video of rioting in the streets of the UK, Musk tweeted: “Civil war is inevitable.”
The war of words came as Cabinet ministers blamed social media for allowing false rumours and hate to spread unchecked, leading to the violent far-right protests that have rocked the UK for more than a week.
Migrant hotels and mosques have been attacked following the horrific Southport stabbing attack that killed three young girls and left several others hospitalised.
Meanwhile, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley broke his silence after being filmed grabbing a journalist’s microphone and throwing it to the ground on Monday as he was asked about accusations of two-tier policing.
Later that day Sir Mark said: “This morning I was part of a positive and constructive COBRA meeting with the prime Minister about our collective response to hateful behaviour and violent disorder across the country.
“There’s been a story running all day about my exit from the meeting. This is a distraction from the critical events we are dealing with.
“It was agreed the prime minister would provide an update afterwards and it was not my place to speak publicly. In an effort to move a microphone out of my path I’m sorry that I knocked it to the floor. That was never my intention.
“We remain focused on the critical and urgent matters at hand.”
Far-right thugs took to the streets after misinformation about the rampage in Southport then spread widely online, with false claims that the attack had been carried out by an asylum seeker. The teenage suspect, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, was born in Cardiff.
Last night, far-right and anti-racism protesters clashed in Plymouth flinging beer bottles and flares leaving police officers injured. In Birmingham, a Sky News van was attacked by a knife-wielding man who stabbed the vehicle’s tyres and forced the crew to flee.
Sir Keir held an emergency response Cobra meeting at No10 on Monday, after thousands of far-right thugs began storming the streets across the country wreaking mass destruction.
The Prime Minister pledged a “standing army” of specialist police officers to confront what he condemned as “far-right thuggery”.
The violent scenes are his first major test as PM a month after entering Downing Street in a landslide general election victory.