Keir Starmer accuses Elon Musk of attempting to ‘whip up division’ over Henry Nowak homicide
Keir Starmer took aim at the billionaire X owner, accusing him of interfering in British politics once again as tensions flare over the police response to Henry Nowak’s murder
Elon Musk has been accused of trying to stir up division in Britain(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Keir Starmer has accused Elon Musk of “trying to whip up division” in Britain in the wake of the murder of Henry Nowak.
The Prime Minister took aim at the billionaire X owner, accusing him of interfering in British politics once again as tensions flared over the police response to the 18-year-old’s murder. Bodycam footage showed how officers handcuffed the teenager as he lay dying. His attacker, 23-year-old Sikh man Vickrum Digwa, falsely claimed he had been racially abused by the student.
The case has been seized on by Nigel Farage, who was accused by the PM of exploiting the tragedy. Mr Starmer said Mr Farage’s demand for “pure cold rage” in response to the murder were unforgivable, while anti-racism groups have accused him of parroting far-right lies about “two-tier” policing.
Speaking today, Mr Starmer said: “We need to also assert who we are as a country, because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division, that is not who we are in Britain.
“In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people. When we have a terrible case like Henry’s case, Henry Nowak, we react calmly as his family have done.”
In the past week, Musk has written and re-posted string of posts in relation to Henry’s murder to his millions of followers. They include claims about the West’s decline and that there has been an “outrageous double-standard” in the response to Henry’s murder compared to George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
Floyd, a Black American man, was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. It led to Black Lives Matter protests calling for racial equality around the world. Floyd and Henry both told officers they couldn’t breathe when they died.
On Tuesday, Musk falsely claimed the mainstream media had been “dead silent” about the Nowak murder. In a post which has gained 27.6million views, he said: “Send the video to everyone you know showing how heinously Nowak was treated by the police in his dying moments and how the police cravenly kowtowed to his murderer.
“Legacy mainstream media, same ones who wrote about George Floyd millions of times, are dead silent about Nowak.” British newspapers have reported widely on the case, including on newspaper front pages and across TV studios.
Musk, who owns X, formerly Twitter, has more than 240 million followers on his account. His posts are also seen by users who do not follow him through the tech firm’s algorithms.
The billionaire, who founded Tesla and bought X in 2022, previously clashed with Mr Starmer after being accused of stoking tensions in the aftermath of the Southport stabbings in 2024. At the time, Musk branded the PM “two-tier Keir” in reference to accusations of “two-tier policing” in Britain, which the PM has rejected.
Musk also came under fire after posting a stream of attacks on the UK government over the grooming gangs scandal in January last year. He in particular targeted then home office minister Jess Phillips, who he said “deserves to be in prison” for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.
Musk has become increasingly involved in politics. He served in Donald Trump‘s administration tasked with cutting government waste. Controversial figures including Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate, who were previously banned from X, were reinstated when Musk took over the platform.
