UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer clashes with Elon Musk over UK riot remarks
Elon Musk and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer have clashed after the tech boss claimed Britain was heading for civil war.
The billionaire owner of the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, provoked a row with Downing Street over the riots that have engulfed UK cities amid accusations that social media is fuelling the unrest.
In a comment on his social media site about the violence, Musk said “civil war is inevitable” - a remark that was explicitly rejected by Starmer’s official spokesman, who said there was “no justification” for it.
Musk then replied to a post on X by Starmer, questioning the prime minister’s decision to provide extra protection for mosques.
The spat risks complicating the government’s efforts to get social media companies, including X, to be more proactive in removing disinformation believed to be stoking the riots.
It came on a seventh day of disorder with far-right and anti-racism protesters facing each other in Plymouth, separated by a line of police officers. Devon and Cornwall police said one of their vans was damaged and officers were met with “a level of violence”.
In Birmingham, hundreds of Muslims, including men in balaclavas and masks, formed a protective ring around a local mosque and shops amid rumours of a planned march by the far-right.
Meanwhile, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates - all of which have majority Muslim populations - as well as Australia, issued travel alerts telling their citizens to be careful if they were travelling to the UK amid the riots.
However, Downing Street rebuffed calls for the army to be deployed or parliament to be recalled in response to the clashes, seen in at least 16 British towns and cities in the last week.
Starmer was also forced to respond to claims there was “two-tier policing” in Britain after Nigel Farage suggested riots over the last week had been dealt with more harshly than other recent unrest and protests.
The prime minister rejected the claims, and Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Police commissioner, was forced to deny that he had intentionally knocked a microphone out of a reporter’s hand when asked about the issue.
The government has accused social media companies of fuelling the protests, which were prompted by false claims spread online that the suspect in the killing of three girls in Southport was an asylum seeker.
Downing Street said on Monday action taken by social media companies to tackle misleading and inflammatory material “doesn’t go far enough”.
It also warned some foreign state actors were amplifying online disinformation.
