X owner responds by saying people shouldn’t go to UK when ‘they’re releasing convicted pedophiles’

Elon Musk used X to suggest civil war in Britain was ‘inevitable’ after the UK riots. Photograph: David Swanson/Reuters

Elon Musk has hit back at the UK government after he was not invited to an international investment summit following his controversial social media posts during last month’s riots.

Musk said 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 was apparently referring to the prison early release scheme, initiated by the Labour government, which has said the system is “on the point of collapse” due to a lack of prison places.

The billionaire owner of X has used the platform to suggest that civil war in Britain was “inevitable”, and to criticise Keir Starmer after rioting broke out after the killing of three children in Southport.

Ministers initially said the early release scheme would not apply to the most serious offenders, but later confirmed that prisoners who have completed a sentence for a serious crime and are now serving a consecutive sentence for a lesser one would qualify. But sex offenders are excluded from the early release programme.

Musk’s latest broadside comes after it emerged he is not invited to a global investment summit in Britain on 14 October. The government hopes the event will be a boost for investment in the UK two weeks before the autumn budget. Government sources confirmed Musk was not invited.

Musk took centre stage in November last year at a UK summit on AI, where the then Conservative prime minister, Rishi Sunak, played the role of a chatshow host and flattered the entrepreneur during a 40-minute in-person conversation.

However, Musk’s attitude towards the UK has changed since then as he has shifted increasingly to the right in the US, where he has emerged as a supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

In August, Musk shared a fake Telegraph article claiming 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.

In the post, Musk shared the image posted by Ashlea Simon, the co-leader of the far-right group Britain First, which she captioned: “We’re all being deported to the Falklands.”

Musk was responding on Thursday to a tweet by Mario Nawfal, a self-described “founder and investor”, who has emerged as a would-be influencer on X since Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Citing the BBC as a source, Nawful had tweeted: “UK snubs Elon because he criticised oppression of free speech.”

Companies including BNY, Blackstone and CyrusOne have all confirmed attendance to the event, according to the UK Treasury.

The event, to be hosted by the prime minister, was confirmed last month by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, as an opportunity for up to 300 senior business figures.