Musk unmasked: 5 of Elon Musk’s largest lies and baffling views about Britain

Elon Musk has an unhealthy interest in Britain.

In recent weeks he’s made several high-profile interventions in British politics – taking aim at everyone from Keir Starmer to, somewhat surprisingly, his former buddy Nigel Farage.

And they’ve been fairly uniformly nonsense – some even bordering on defamatory.

For those who still have no idea who or what an Elon Musk is, he’s an erratic, 53-year-old billionaire tech entrepreneur, who owns the SpaceX rocket company, Tesla cars, and most recently snapped up Twitter.

After buying Twitter – reportedly at the suggestion of ex-wife Talulah Riley – and laying off a huge number of its staff, he changed it’s name to X.

But most people still call it Twitter.

His vocal interventions in British politics began shortly after the general election in July – most notably sliding into the right wing narrative that violent thugs who set fire to hotels were somehow being treated unfairly, due to “two tier policing”.

There are many theories about the origin of Mr Musk’s beef with Keir Starmer – but most believe it has something to do with the billionaire’s earlier beef with a -adjacent campaign group called the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).

Mr Musk accused CCDH of violating laws against foreign interference in US elections – and tried unsuccessfully to sue them.

Since then he’s made repeated false claims about the UK releasing “convicted paedophiles to imprison people for social media posts”. Sex offenders were excluded from the early release scheme.

And if anything, his morbid fascination with the UK has ramped up since Christmas – with unhinged late-night tweets waiting to greet us almost every morning.

Here’s just a few of the false and baffling claims Elon Musk has made about Britain recently – and why they’re absolute hogwash.

1. Keir Starmer called Donald Trump a racist

Hitting back at remarks made about him by French President Emmanuel Macron, Musk tweeted yesterday: “Oh like that time Starmer called Donald Trump a racist and said the British government should do everything to stop him?

Reality

Keir Starmer has said neither of these things. Not in public anyway. The closest he’s come to criticising Donald Trump in public was having a pop at Boris Johnson after the then-US President endorsed the then-PM.

2. Keir Starmer was ‘complicit’ in the ‘RAPE OF BRITAIN’

On January 3, Musk tweeted: “Starmer was complicit in the RAPE OF BRITAIN when he was head of Crown Prosecution for 6 years.”

And last night he repeated claims that Mr Starmer was “complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”

Reality

Keir Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008–13, was accused by Mr Musk of failing to prosecute gangs who groomed and abused young girls.

In fact, Mr Starmer ordered a comprehensive overhaul of the Crown Prosecution Service’s response to grooming in 2012 in an attempt to drive up convictions. He said at the time that a generation of girls had been betrayed by a flawed justice system and argued that prosecutors “shouldn’t shy away from” understanding issues of ethnicity.

3. Tommy Robinson was imprisoned for ‘telling the truth’ about grooming gangs

On New Year’s Day, Musk tweeted: “Why is Tommy Robinson in a solitary confinement prison for telling the truth? He should be freed and those who covered up this travesty should take his place in that cell.”

He later tweeted: “I know he’s in prison for contempt of court ffs, but there is NO justification for such a long prison sentence or for solitary confinement!”

Reality

Tommy Robinson is in prison for repeated and defamatory lies about a victim of assault.

He released a video making the false claims online, which was seen by more than a million people – leading to the victim, a schoolboy, receiving death threats.

The far-right provocateur initially admitted the allegations were false, but later defended them in court – where he was ordered to pay the victim £100,000 and court costs – and to refrain from repeating the allegations.

But after the court case, Robinson – whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon – repeated the lies, not least in a feature length film he released online.

He admitted in court that he had repeated the defamatory claims, and in doing so was in contempt of court. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, which is well within the sentencing guidelines for contempt.

Robinson’s imprisonment has nothing to do with grooming gangs.

However in 2018 he almost collapsed the trial of the largest gang ever convicted for the sexual abuse of children, after repeatedly live streaming the case from outside Leeds Crown Court.

Robinson’s video broadcast violated blanket reporting restrictions imposed by Judge Geoffrey Marson QC to prevent defendants claiming juries had been prejudiced against them.

He was arrested outside the court after he refused to stop filming and was jailed for 13 months for contempt, but the sentence was overturned on appeal.

4. Dozens of MPs voted against deporting foreign rapists

Musk last night retweeted an image of a list of MPs names (with Ed Davey’s name circled for some reason) – with a headline of “Here is a list of MP’s (sic) who voted against deporting foreign rapists. They all need removing.”

Musk added: “Remember these names next election”

Reality

It’s not a list of MPs who voted against anything.

It’s the second half of a list of MPs who signed an open letter from Labour MP Nadia Whittome in 2020.

The letter was about a deportation flight bound for Jamaica, organised under then-PM Theresa May.

It called for the flights to be delayed (not cancelled), until after a report into the Windrush Scandal was published.

5. King Charles should call an election

In one of his most baffling outbursts, Musk wrote “Yes” in response to a tweet urging King Charles to dissolve parliament and call an election, in order to remove Keir Starmer from office.

The original tweet read: “Who also thinks the KING should Dissolve Parliament and order a General Election be called for the sake and security of the country?

“The King must ACT before it is too late!”

Musk later tweeted: “It is my earnest hope that His Majesty considers this matter in the interests of his subjects”

Reality

The King cannot unilaterally dissolve parliament.

He can approve a dissolution, but only at the request of the sitting Prime Minister. Given the sitting Prime Minister is Keir Starmer, this seems unlikely to happen.

It’s also worth reflecting for a moment on what Musk is suggesting here. He’s calling for an unelected monarch, who is largely a ceremonial figurehead in reality, to mount a coup d’etat in a major democracy.

He’s suggesting the result of an election which was undertaken properly, according to all the rules and laws that apply, should be nullified, with the votes of tens of millions of people invalidated.

Not particularly democratic.