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Piers Morgan has hit out at Elon Musk over his inflammatory remarks about Britain’s ongoing race riots.
Violent disorder has spread across the country in the wake of the stabbings of three young girls in Southport, after misinformation spread that the killer was a Muslim asylum seeker.
Hundreds of people have been arrested, with thousands of police officers deployed to prepare for further actions throughout the week. At least one person has been left seriously injured as a result of racist and Islamophobic attacks, with stabbings, street beatings, and mosques under siege.
The billionaire tech owner has been accused of fanning the flames of unrest, as he shared a video of a group of Asian men gathered around a pub in Birmingham with the caption, “Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?” to X/Twitter on Tuesday (6 August).
He tagged UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer in the post, after the Labour leader condemned actions against groups based on their race or religion and called for mosques to be protected.
Morgan called out Musk for the comment as he chastised, “Elon, fake news was posted that the triple child-killer was a Muslim illegal immigrant who came in on a small boat and was on a terror watchlist.
“This prompted far-right rioters to attack Muslims & asylum seekers. I haven’t seen you mention/condemn any of this?”
Other broadcasters lent their voice to the criticism as Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy wrote, “Do you want to do an interview about this?
“You are causing a lot of waves here in Britain at a very dangerous time. Anytime, anywhere. On @Channel4News and @X live.”
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Musk’s comments come as part of an ongoing series of tweets to his 193 million followers on X, as he suggested on Monday (5 August) that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK – comments which were criticised by Downing Street.
He shared a plethora of tweets on Tuesday in which he claimed that his site X is “the UK’s biggest source of news” at a time when his own messages appeared to repeat fake claims.
Using the hashtag #twotierkier – a far-right claim which has been used to justify the riots, suggesting police are going soft on left-wing and Islamic protesters but hard on far-right white working-class protesters – he appeared to repeat conspiracy theories including an image comparing the treatment of three alleged rapists which suggested the Muslim man had avoided jail, but it turned out that the man identified was not guilty of the crime claimed.
Musk also posted an image of the lead character from the adult cartoon Family Guy in an electric chair with the message: “In 2030 for making a Facebook comment that the UK government didn’t like.”
Critics have called for Musk to be banned from entering the country as commentator Nels Abbey, author of Think Like a White Man, demanded the UK restrict the Tesla owner from entering.
He said: “Britain banned Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown, Ja Rule and Michael Savage for a lot less than inciting race riots and winking towards a civil war in our country. Keir Starmer should ban Elon Musk from entering the UK and using our airspace.”
