Elon Musk has said that no one should visit Britain because it releases paedophiles from prison, after he was snubbed by Sir Keir Starmer over an upcoming investment summit.

Posting on his social media platform X, Mr Musk said: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted pedophiles [sic] in order to imprison people for social media posts.”

Mr Musk has not been invited to the International Investment Summit next month after his claims about the Southport riots over summer.

The tech entrepreneur posted on X predicting civil war and repeatedly attacked the prime minister in comments which were described as “deplorable” by ministers.

During the riots, Mr Musk also spread misinformation and conspiracy theories including that the UK was building detainment camps on the Falkland Islands as a means of detaining rioters.

“Keir Starmer considering building ‘emergency detainment camps’ on the Falkland Islands,” the fake Telegraph headline read.

Beneath it, the subheading said: “The camps would be used to detain prisoners from the ongoing riots as the British prison system is already at capacity.”

Mr Musk later deleted the reposted tweet to his 193 million followers after backlash.

He has criticised hate speech laws that have led to some jail sentences for people posting online in support of the riots.

Labour has introduced an early release scheme for some other prisoners since the unrest, to reduce overcrowding in jails, although sex offenders are not part of this scheme.

Secure foreign investment

The summit on Oct 14 is regarded as a key moment for the Government to secure foreign investment, with Sir Keir Starmer hoping to attract tens of billions in inward funding from the world’s biggest investors.

Mr Musk went to last year’s event and attended November’s AI Summit, including a fireside talk with Rishi Sunak, the then prime minister.

Under the Conservatives, Mr Musk – who owns or runs X, Tesla and SpaceX – was shown around several UK sites with potential for a gigafactory for cars and batteries.

He previously said that he opened a site in Germany and not the UK partly because of Brexit.

Under Mr Musk’s ownership the social media site formerly known as Twitter has lifted a ban on far-Right figures including on the Britain First group.

The UK is considering a tougher Online Safety Act, after the role of misinformation in the widespread racist disorder in August.

The Government and Mr Musk were contacted for comment.