Elon Musk’s foray into European, UK politics draws epic take-down

The Tesla boss’ recent war of words with an entire continent has seen him cop a piercing critique from a leading media figure.

One of the UK’s leading media figures has excoriated Elon Musk’s foray into European politics, saying it’s time the world stopped taking the tech billionaire seriously.

Mr Musk has been in a war of words with Britain’s Prime Minister after the Tesla boss claimed Sir Keir Starmer was “complicit” in a grooming gangs scandal that has recently returned to public attention.

The X owner has also targeted Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips, calling her a “rape genocide apologist”, after she declined to order a new inquiry into the scandal.

Mr Starmer has condemned the “misinformation” being spread by Mr Musk and others, saying it had crossed a line and lead to threats of violence against MPs.

Speaking on the issue to UK talkback station LBC, editor of satirical magazine Private Eye Ian Hislop derided Mr Musk as “a classic social media adolescent who hasn’t grown up”.

Hislop said it was an “amazing feat of deception” for the South African-born billionaire to convince followers the mainstream media had not covered big stories like the grooming scandal – which came to light a decade ago and was subject to a national public probe.

“We should have got on to him early on when he quite gratuitously called someone who was trying to help those boys in Thailand (who were stuck in a cave) a pedophile,” he said of Mr Musk’s comments about one of the Thai cave rescuers in 2018.

“An American court let him off and I think he thought from then on ‘I can say anything I like, it doesn’t have to be true – it’s better if it’s not true – and no one will stop me’.

“And that’s what’s happened.”

Elon Musk, Co-Chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency. Picture: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFP

British media figure Ian Hislop has admonished Musk. Picture: LBC

Among Mr Musk’s claims in X posts about the UK grooming scandal was that “a quarter-million little girls were – still are – being systematically raped by migrant gangs in Britain”.

A 2014 report made a conservative estimate that more than 1,400 girls were sexually exploited in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, between 1997 and 2013.

Mr Musk has also claimed Mr Starmer, who was the country’s top prosecutor from 2008 to 2013, was part of a cover up and “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”.

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Picture: Paul Grover/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Elon Musk supported US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign. Picture: Brandon Bell/Getty Images/AFP

Sir Keir has called out Mr Musk’s amplification of conspiracies about the grooming gangs scandal, which have been circulated by far-right accounts online.

“Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves,” the Labour Prime Minister said.

The opposition Conservative Party had sought to use the debate to force the establishment of a new national inquiry into sex offences dating back decades against children in northern England.

Mr Starmer has rejected calls for a new inquiry, arguing it is time for “action” to implement the almost two dozen recommendations made in an earlier seven-year-long inquiry with a broader focus.

Hislop meanwhile said Mr Musk and other tech bosses who were “sucking up” to incoming US president Donald Trump “purely on the grounds that this is to their commercial advantage” showed they “have no morality at all”.

The SpaceX, X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become increasingly involved in politics. Picture: Omar Marques/Getty Images

“You get Musk pretending to be a champion of women and young girls, and then he calls Jess Phillips an ‘evil witch’,” he said.

“I mean how is that on a scale of medieval misogyny?

“He is riddled with contradictions and at some point, I am hoping, even his followers will begin to notice that from sentence to sentence – he makes no sense.”

He said the “best idea” would be for the public to “refuse to take him seriously”.

Mr Musk, whose financial and public support of Mr Trump was seen as crucial to the Republican’s US election win, has in recent weeks been courting right-wing political figures across Europe.

His online comments have drawn the ire of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who said an international far-right movement “led in this case by the richest man on the planet” was openly attacking institutions and stirring up “hatred”.

France’s top diplomat Jean-Noel Barrot has also accused Mr Musk of “interfering” in Europe’s domestic politics – such as the upcoming German election.

Co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party Alice Weidel was interviewed by Musk on X last week. Picture: Kay Nietfeld/AFP

The world’s richest man has endorsed the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party ahead of February’s election and hosted its leader Alice Weidel for an interview on X this week.

During the conversation they agreed that Adolf Hitler was a “communist” as they criticised left-wing politics. The AfD has been surveilled by German intelligence services over links to extremism and has been caught up in neo-Nazi controversies.

“The traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people. AfD is the only hope for Germany,” Mr Musk posted on X last month.

He labelled German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “incompetent fool” after a deadly Christmas market attack in December.

Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, appeared to have a public falling-out with Elon Musk over differing opinions of jailed far-right political activist Tommy Robinson. Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images

Mr Musk also appeared to fall out last week with right wing UK MP Nigel Farage, who met at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, over opinions about the jailed British anti-Islam campaigner Tommy Robinson.

“The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” he wrote on January 5, after Mr Farage said he did not want Robinson in his party.

Mr Farage has since claimed in an interview with Sky News UK that he remains “on good terms” with the tycoon despite the public comments.

“Look, he said lots of supportive things. He said one thing that wasn’t supportive. I mean, that’s just the way it is,” Mr Farage said.

Italy’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has defended Mr Musk from criticism saying he was exercising his right to free speech.

“Is the problem that Elon Musk is influential and rich or that he is not left-wing?” queried Ms Meloni, who has described Musk as a “genius”, on Thursday.

– with AFP.