Elon Musk has suggested in a post on X that Americans “should liberate” the British from their “tyrannical government” as he attempts to insert himself deeper into British politics and continues to feud with the country’s ruling Labour Party over its handling of child abuse cases.
In perhaps his strangest intervention in foreign politics yet, the Tesla and Space X multi-billionaire asked for a show of hands in a poll on his social network Monday on his statement: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.” It had 39 million views by Monday evening.
Whether he was referring to harsh criticism, covert support for domestic guerrillas, or military action in the “liberation” was unclear, but he also added that it was “not a bad idea” for Britain to become a U.S. state, as Donald Trump has suggested for Canada.
Musk’s own father, also-billionaire Errol Musk, urged the public to ignore” his son. “People “don’t have to listen to what he says. I’d say don’t worry about it. Tell him to get lost.” Musk’s dad told LBC News.
Musk’s latest post is part of an escalating battle between the richest person on Earth and the British Labour Party, which was elected in a landslide last July, but has since suffered a sharp drop in popularity.
As part of that battle, Musk – a dues-paying major ally of the openly authoritarian Donald Trump – has repeatedly voiced support for far-right activists and causes in the UK, just as he did in Germany last month.
At the center of the dispute is Labour’s record, and that of British prime minister Keir Starmer, over a series of high-profile child abuse scandals in which authorities reportedly failed to investigate gangs of largely British Pakistani men who trafficked and raped thousands of young girls.
Over the past six days, Musk has accused Starmer of being “complicit in mass rape in exchange for votes,” called British safeguarding minister Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” who “should be in jail,” and reportedly called for London’s police chief Sir Mark Rowley to be “extradited” to the U.S.
In a speech on Monday morning, Starmer shot back: “Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves … Jess Phillips has done a thousand times more than they’ve even dreamt about when it comes to protecting victims of sexual abuse throughout her entire career.”
He added: “When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats, to Jess Phillips and others, that in my book, means a line has been crossed. 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.”
Research has suggested that most perpetrators of group-based child abuse are white, although evidence on the ethnicity of British sex offenders is reportedly unreliable.
Nevertheless, there have been several cases in which gangs of mostly British Pakistani men in northern England groomed and raped young girls many of whom were white.
In many of those cases, later investigations found that police and local authorities had failed to act in part because they were afraid of inflaming racial tensions.
As the chief prosecutor for England and Wales between 2008 and 2013, Starmer oversaw a decision not to bring charges in one such case, and has been accused of authorities’ failures to take action.
But there is no evidence Starmer was personally involved in that specific case, and he later pushed for a tougher stance against child abuse gangs.
Musk’s attacks began when Phillips rejected calls for a new national inquiry into child abuse in the city of Oldham, saying that it was up to local authorities to conduct such a probe.
Her predecessors in the Conservative Party made the same decision back in 2022, and failed to implement the recommendations of a previous national inquiry into such scandals.
Grooming gangs have also been a major talking point for British far right and anti-Muslim activists, whom Musk has repeatedly praised or voiced agreement with. Emphasizing a segment of crimes involving immigrants plays into Musk’s anti-immigrant perspective, even though he himself is an immigrant from South Africa.
