Why Elon Musk hates Starmer’s Britain

On Wednesday it emerged that MPs on the Commons science and technology committee, chaired by Labor leader Chi Onwurah, planned to subpoena Musk for questioning over the spread of disinformation on X, formerly Twitter. He replied: “They will be called to the United States of America to explain their censorship and threats against American citizens.”

The skirmishes between Musk and Labor that began in the summer do not appear to have helped Starmer’s relationship with the man who has become one of Donald Trump’s closest lieutenants.

On Tuesday, Lord Mandelson, tipped to be the next British ambassador to Washington and one of Labour’s brightest players, warned: “(Musk) is some kind of technological, industrial, commercial phenomenon. And it would be unwise, in my opinion, for Britain to ignore him. You can’t continue these feuds. You can’t afford to do it. We must try to contact it as soon as possible.”

But Musk, who will lead Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, is not the only member of the president-elect’s team with a bleak view of contemporary Britain. Trump’s allies appear to see Britain as a cautionary tale about what happens when governments try to curb freedom of speech – and the consequences of mass migration.

In July, JD Vance, Trump’s vice president-elect, said: “I need to beat up Britain,” claiming that “since Labor… took over, Britain would be the first truly Muslim country to launch a nuclear weapons program.” get) gun.” Last month Vance said: “London doesn’t feel completely English to me anymore, does it?”

Labor took Vance’s initial comments as an attack on Britain’s diversity, with James Murray, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, saying that “in Britain we are very proud of our diversity”. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, also responded: “We have won votes in all the different communities, across the country, and we are interested in governing on behalf of Britain and also working with our international allies.”

And it seems the scale of illegal migration to Britain could also influence Musk’s views, both on Labor and on modern Britain. In a possible indication of how he might view Labour, he tweeted in September: “Mass illegal immigration will create permanent one-party rule in America, just as it has in California.

“Since the Democratic Party is weak on crime, it is also heavily favored by criminals, so their perverse, but very real, incentive is to maximize criminal immigration. Once you understand the stimuli, behavior is easy to predict.”

The irony is that prior to his recent criticism, there is plenty of evidence of Musk’s fondness for Britain.

‘Margaret Thatcher was like my English Nana’

In April 2013, Musk even revealed that he was a fan of Margaret Thatcher. He wrote: “I have always admired Margaret Thatcher – she was tough, but sensible and honest, just like my English grandmother.”

He added: “Britain went from bleak to Great again.”

Musk’s “English Nana” was Cora Amelia Robinson, born in Liverpool and married to Elon’s South African grandfather, Walter Henry James Musk.

Musk immigrated to Canada from South Africa in 1989, but eventually moved to California’s Silicon Valley and became a U.S. citizen. In 2002, he made his initial fortune through his involvement with PayPal.

Two years later, Musk would use that money to invest in car startup Tesla before ultimately taking control of the company.

In 2008 he met Talulah Riley, the British actress who played the lead role Pride and prejudice and the Saint Trinianin a London nightclub, and two years later they would marry at Dornoch Cathedral in the Highlands.

Their marriage ended in 2016. But in 2022, court documents revealed that during Musk’s legal battle with Twitter, Riley urged him to buy the platform, saying: “It is very easy to exploit and widely used by radicals widely used for social engineering. dish. And this s… infects the world. Please do something to combat wokeism.”