Dubai: Keir Starmer’s dispute with Elon Musk has escalated, with the social media baron dubbing the British Prime Minister ‘two-tier Keir’ in a series of new tweets, just a day after claiming that ‘civil war is inevitable’ in the UK following far-right riots in several cities.
Musk’s posts on X that he owns were in response to a video showing footage of rioting and remarks from another poster that it was the result of “migration and open borders.”
“There’s no justification for comments like that,” Starmer’s spokesman, Dave Pares, said on Monday.
Pares also said that events over the weekend — which include attacks on at least two hotels housing immigrants — require an “immediate response” from social media companies, after online forums were used to spread misinformation and organise anti-immigration protests. He added that “state actors” may have been involved in “bot activity” used to propagate the posts.
“Anyone who stokes this violence whether on the internet or in person can be prosecuted and face prison,” Pares said.
'Deeply irresponsible'
"Use of language such as a 'civil war' is in no way acceptable," justice minister Heidi Alexander said on Tuesday, branding Musk's comments "deeply irresponsible".
"We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly," she told Times Radio.
The riots follow the murder on Monday last week of three girls aged between six and nine at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in Southport, northwest England.
The suspect is 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Britain, reportedly to immigrants from Rwanda.
He did not come to the UK on an illegal small boat crossing as false rumours on social media have suggested.
Far-right protesters - sometimes masked and brandishing British flags - have clashed with police, torched cars, and attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, leading the government to provide emergency security to Islamic centres.
Musk slams UK govt
In his tweet on Tuesday, the billionaire slammed the UK government again with a ‘Family Guy’ meme and wrote,
“In 2030 for making a Facebook comment that the UK government didn’t like.”
Musk called the prime minister “two-tier Keir” in reference to the conspiracy theory that police are treating white far-right “protesters” more harshly than minority groups.
He promoted the idea that has been spread by Tommy Robinson and the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage amid a series of far-right riots across towns and cities in England and in Belfast.
In a slew of tweets aimed at Keir Starmer, Musk, one of the world’s richest men, also questioned whether the riots were taking place in Britain or the Soviet Union, in response to a video purporting to show someone being arrested for making offensive comments on Facebook.
Musk reposted a series of images, videos and memes related to ongoing rioting.
He tagged Keir in several tweets, writing “Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?” and “#TwoTierKeir”.
More protests at 30 refugee and immigration centres
The far-right unrest poses a major early challenge for Starmer’s month-old government, threatening to plunge it into a polarising cultural debate. With further demonstrations planned this week, it’s also a test of British policing and the country’s judicial and prisons system, which were already creaking at the seams.
A message shared by far-right activists on the Telegram platform, seen by Bloomberg, called for demonstrations at the premises of some 30 refugee and immigration centres and law firms representing asylum seekers on Wednesday evening. The campaign group Tell Mama, which documents anti-Muslim incidents, said it had alerted the police to the posts.
The recent disorder has been fuelled by online misinformation since an attack a week ago left three young girls dead in Southport, northwest England.
Far-right activists falsely claimed the suspect was a Muslim migrant in an effort to stoke anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiment.
In Rotherham, South Yorkshire, protesters on Sunday attacked a hotel they believed was housing asylum seekers and started a fire, injuring around a dozen police officers.
Another hotel used for immigrant accommodation was targeted in Tamworth, while in Hull, demonstrators gathered outside a third hotel, smashing windows and throwing bottles. In videos uploaded to social media many of the protesters can be heard chanting “stop the boats,” a reference to crossings made from the European continent by migrants attempting to get to Britain.
The violence at the weekend also hit the Walton area of Liverpool, Leicester, Stoke-on Trent, Nottingham, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Belfast.
The UK government said on Tuesday that 6,000 specialist police officers were ready to deal with the rioting.
