An online row has broken out between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Tesla CEO Elon Musk over anti-immigration riots in the UK.
More than a dozen cities and towns have been gripped by chaotic protests, triggered by a deadly knife attack in Southport, England.
Musk claimed that “civil war was inevitable,” commenting a video on X (formerly Twitter) that showed the street clashes. The video was posted by a user that suggested the root cause was mass immigration to the UK and open-border policies.
Downing Street hit back against the statement. “There is no justification for comments like that,” Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters, calling the riots “organized, illegal thuggery which has no place on our streets or online.”
The prime minister slammed the actions of troublemakers, and pledged to field a “standing army of public duty officers” in response.
“The criminal law applies online as well as offline, and I’m assured that is the approach that is being taken,” Starmer said in a statement released on X. “Whatever the apparent motivation, this is not protest. It is pure violence, and we will not tolerate attacks on mosques or our Muslim communities,” he stressed.
The riots have seen mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers attacked.
“Shouldn't you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?” Musk replied.
The comment referred to violent counterprotests in the UK. Police in Bolton clashed with 300 “mostly Asian” demonstrators after two rival groups met and a brawl broke out, the Manchester Evening News reported on Monday.
In a video circulating online, customers of a Birmingham pub can be seen being physically attacked. 'The Clumsy Swan' pub was stormed by “a group of Muslim youths, who broke away from the main demonstration and were wearing masks and carrying weapons,” the BBC wrote on Sunday.
The UK’s top police official has been pressed on double standards over the riots, which have allegedly been dealt with more harshly than other recent unrest.
Reacting to a question about ending “two-tier policing,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley ripped a Sky News reporter’s microphone out of his hands and walked away. He took no questions from journalists.
The events were sparked by a mass stabbing at a dance studio in Merseyside on on 29 July. Three children were killed and 10 other people injured.
Axel Muganwa Rudakubana, a 17-year-old British boy born to Rwandan parents, has been charged with the stabbings.
A Liverpool judge ruled on Thursday that the name of the suspect, whose identity was initially concealed due to laws protecting minors, must be released to the public as he turned 18 that week.
Despite the rapid spread of rumours that the suspect was a Muslim immigrant, the police have stated he appears to have no links to Islam.