Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Co-Chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arrives on Capitol Hill on December 05, 2024 in Washington, DC.
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Elon Musk has questioned whether the United States should “liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government” after hitting out at top U.K. lawmakers.
In recent days, the tech billionaire and key adviser to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has taken to social media to air his grievances with the British government, resulting in a war of words between the Tesla boss and a U.K. government official.
In a series of posts on the X social media platform — which Musk owns — the tech tycoon hit out at the U.K.’s Labour government, criticizing its handling of historic child abuse scandals.
Musk accused the U.K. Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist” on Friday, before publishing a series of posts calling for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to face jail time over how child grooming gangs and other criminals who targeted children have been prosecuted.
Musk’s comments came after Phillips rejected calls for a government-led inquiry into child sexual exploitation in the town of Oldham. Prior to embarking on a political career, Starmer served as the U.K.’s Director of Public Prosecutions, running the Crown Prosecution Service during the country’s child rape gangs scandal.
Spokespeople for Starmer and Phillips were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. U.K. Health Minister Wes Streeting slammed Musk’s attack on Phillips as a “disgraceful smear” over the weekend.
“Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips, who have both been on the end of completely ill-judged criticism have done, in their professional lives, more than most people will ever do to lock up paedophiles, rapists, wife beaters and every other scumbag in our society,” he said in an interview with broadcasters the BBC.
Musk’s criticisms of the U.K. government over the weekend culminated in a poll, where he posed the concept of “liberating the people of Britain” to the platform’s users.
This story is being updated.
