Prime minister hits back in spat over tech entrepreneur’s non-invitation to British investment summit
Keir Starmer met business leaders in New York in an attempt to drum up investment in the UK. Photograph: Leon Neal/PA
Keir Starmer has pushed back against Elon Musk’s jibes at the UK for “releasing paedophiles” after the billionaire was not invited to the government’s investment summit, saying other business leaders do not share his negative view of Britain.
The prime minister said a representative of Musk’s SpaceX had been invited to the summit, due to take place in October, and that Musk’s comments were “in stark contrast to the very strong view” from other investors that the summit was worth attending.
The spat began after Musk wrote on X on Thursday: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted pedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts.”
He seemed to be referring to the prison early release scheme, initiated by the Labour government to ease pressure on a system it has said is “on the point of collapse” due to a lack of capacity.
The billionaire owner of X has used the platform previously to suggest civil war in Britain was “inevitable”, and to criticise Starmer as rioting broke out after disinformation spread about the killing of three children in Southport.
Musk was invited to a previous summit held by the former Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak. He took centre stage at the UK summit on AI last November where Sunak flattered the businessman during a 40-minute in-person conversation.
During his trip to New York, where he met business leaders in private equity and finance, Starmer said of Musk: “What he said is in stark contrast to the very strong view around the breakfast table this morning by investors, nearly all of whom are coming to the investment summit … They described this morning’s meeting with the UK as the best of the meetings they’ve had this week at the UN general assembly.”
He said the business leaders believed “that there’s really strong window of opportunity now with the UK, given the changes we’ve brought about” over the wealth fund and the industrial strategy.
He added: “So I’m listening good and hard to what they have to say, because they will be attending the summit, and many of them are already investing in the UK.”
He said that on Musk’s companies, he encouraged investment from anywhere.
“Good investment into the UK is what I’m very, very keen to promote … Every time I’m abroad, every time on an international trip, we do these investment breakfasts, because I’m absolutely determined to get the investment that we needed into the economy. And I do think we’ve got a real opportunity with a new chapter now.”
Musk’s attitude towards the UK appears to have changed since his trip for the AI summit as he has shifted increasingly to the right in the US and emerged as a supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
In August, Musk shared a fake news article purporting to be from the Daily Telegraph, which claimed Keir Starmer was considering sending far-right rioters to “emergency detainment camps” in the Falklands. Musk deleted his post after about 30 minutes but a screenshot captured by Politics.co.uk suggested it had garnered nearly 2m views before it was deleted.
