LONDON (AP)– British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday condemned “lies and misinformation” that he claimed are weakening U.K. freedom, in feedback to a battery of attacks on his government from Elon Musk.
The billionaire Tesla CEO has actually taken an extreme and irregular passion in British national politics considering that the center-left Labour Party was chosen inJuly Musk has actually utilized his social media, X, to require a brand-new political election and need Starmer be sent to prison. On Monday he uploaded an online survey for his 210 million fans on the proposal: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”
Asked concerning Musk’s remarks throughout a concern session at a medical facility near London, Starmer slammed “those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible,” especially resistance Conservative political leaders in Britain that have actually resembled several of Musk’s cases.
Musk often posts on X concerning the U.K., retweeting objection of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir — shorthand for an unverified insurance claim that Britain has “two-tier policing” with reactionary militants dealt with a lot more roughly than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. During summertime anti-immigrant physical violence throughout the U.K. he tweeted that “civil war is inevitable.”
Recently Musk has focused on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked northern England towns in which groups of men, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, were tried for grooming and abusing dozens of girls. The cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of covering up the “grooming gangs” out of a worry of showing up racist.
Musk has posted a demand for a new public inquiry into the cases. A huge, seven-year inquiry was held under the previous Conservative government, though many of the 20 recommendations it made in 2022 — including compensation for abuse victims — have yet to be implemented. Starmer’s government said it would act on them as quickly as possible.
Musk also has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
Starmer defended his record as chief prosecutor, saying he had reopened closed cases and “changed the whole prosecution approach” to child sexual exploitation.
He also condemned language used by Musk about Jess Phillips, a government minister responsible for combating violence against women and girls. Musk called Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and said she deserved to be in prison.
