Elon Musk is NFI’d to Starmer biz summit after race riot posts
Right-wing tech billionaire Elon Musk has been snubbed by a government business summit after he clashed with Keir Starmer in a row over summer race riots in the UK.
The controversial X owner has reportedly not been invited to an investment summit next month after he used the platform to criticise Sir Keir and make unsubstantiated claimed about the UK.
After three children were killed in a stabbing attack in Southport and violence erupted across the UK, Mr Musk branded the PM #TwoTierKeir, in reference to claims or allegations of ‘two tier policing’ in Britain complaining about harsh sentences handed out to those involved in the disorder fuelled by far-right thugs.
He also said ‘civil war is inevitable’ in the wake of the chaos, and was left red-faced as he pushed false claims about the PM setting up detainment camps in the Falklands.
Sir Keir will host the International Investment Summit on October 14 – two weeks before the autumn Budget.
The Government hopes the summit will attract hundreds of leading chief executives and financiers and is part of efforts to show that the UK is ‘open for business’ after a period of political and economic turmoil.
The decision to NFI Mr Musk comes after he was feted by previous Tory PM Rishi Sunak at an AI event at Bletchley Park last year. The PM also conducted an interview with Mr Musk.
The controversial X owner has reportedly not been invited to an investment summit next month after he used the platform to criticise Sir Keir and make unsubstantiated claimed about the UK.
Mr Musk branded the PM #TwoTierKeir, in reference to claims or allegations of ‘two tier policing’ in Britain complaining about harsh sentences handed out to those involved in the disorder fuelled by far-right thugs.
After three children were killed in a stabbing attack in Southport and violence erupted across the UK
The decision to NFI Mr Musk comes after he was feted by previous Tory PM Rishi Sunak at an AI event at Bletchley Park last year. The PM also conducted an interview with Mr Musk (video below)
BNY, Blackstone and CyrusOne have confirmed attendance, according to the Treasury. A list of attendees has not been released.
Investment giant Blackstone has already confirmed a £10 billion deal to develop Europe’s largest AI data centre in Blyth, Northumberland.
The firm’s president, Jon Gray, will be among the executives at a roundtable event hosted by Sir Keir on Thursday.
Mr Musk was a star guest at the UK Government’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Summit last year, during which Mr Sunak interviewed him for almost an hour in front of business chiefs.
Mr Musk shared a doctored headline that falsely stated Sir Keir was considering building ’emergency’ prisons on the Falkland Islands for arrested rioters
The billionaire shared the post on X made by Ashlea Simon, co-leader of far-right group Britain First
But it appears he will not be courted by the new Labour administration after his posts about the disorder in the UK last month.
False information that spread on social media about the identity of the alleged Southport knife attacker has been seen as playing a role in sparking the days of violence.
The billionaire engaged with posts by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, suggested that civil war in the UK was ‘inevitable’, and retweeted a fake Daily Telegraph headline suggesting rioters would be sent to detention camps in the Falkland Islands.
The social media tycoon also called the Prime Minister ‘two-tier Keir’, a reference to claims that police have a ‘two-tier’ approach to protests and deal with some more harshly than others.
Justice Minister Heidi Alexander said at the time that Mr Musk’s comments on civil war were ‘deeply irresponsible’ and Sir Keir’s spokesman said there was ‘no justification for comments like that’.
The Government and X have been contacted for comment.
