{"id":138656,"date":"2025-09-15T10:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T10:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/138656\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T10:27:07","slug":"british-politicians-condemn-elon-musks-comments-at-anti-migrant-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/138656\/","title":{"rendered":"British politicians condemn Elon Musk’s comments at anti-migrant rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON — Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced calls Monday to sanction Elon Musk<\/a> after the X and Tesla owner told an anti-immigration rally<\/a> that violence is coming to Britain and they must fight or die.<\/p>\n

Starmer denounced violence on the fringes of Saturday\u2019s 100,000 or more-strong \u201cUnite the Kingdom\u201d demonstration in London organized by far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Police said 26 officers were injured, four seriously, as protesters tried to breach lines separating them from a smaller anti-racist counter-demonstration. There were 25 people arrested at the event and the Metropolitan Police said more arrests would follow.<\/p>\n

Addressing the demonstration by video link, Musk called for the dissolution of Parliament, an early election and a change of government in Britain. He told protesters \u201cviolence is coming to you\u201d and \u201cyou either fight back or you die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third-largest party in Britain\u2019s Parliament, urged Starmer and Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch to join him in condemning Musk\u2019s attempt \u201cto sow discord and incite violence on our streets\u201d and interfere with British democracy. <\/p>\n

They should \u201cconsider what sanctions Elon Musk should face as a consequence,” Davey said.<\/p>\n

Equalities Minister Jacqui Smith said Musk\u2019s remarks \u201cwere wrong and they were dangerous.\u201d Business Secretary Peter Kyle called the comments\u201cslightly incomprehensible\u201d and \u201ctotally inappropriate,” but said the demonstration showed free speech was alive and well.<\/p>\n

Starmer has not commented directly on Musk\u2019s comments. He wrote on X that peaceful protest \u201cis core to our country\u2019s values. But we will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the color of their skin.”<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Musk, an erstwhile ally of President Donald Trump, has supported hard-right and far-right figures in Europe, including Robinson, a convicted fraudster and founder of the anti-Islam English Defense League whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, and the Alternative for Germany<\/a> party, or AfD.<\/p>\n

Musk also is a critic of attempts by the U.K. and other European governments to clamp down on harmful online content, something he argues restricts free speech.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s demonstration follows growing political concern about unauthorized immigration, especially the arrival of migrants across the English Channel in small boats<\/a>. More than 30,000 people have made the dangerous crossing from France so far this year despite efforts by authorities<\/a> from Britain, France and other countries to crack down on the people-smuggling gangs behind the trips.<\/p>\n

The use of hotels to accommodate asylum-seekers has become a major political issued in Britain, sparking dozens of small but heated protests<\/a> over the summer, some of which turned violent.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s demonstration, one of the largest nationalist protests in Britain for decades, turned central London into a sea of flags, both the Union Jack of the U.K. and England\u2019s red and white St. George flag. <\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the flags have proliferated around the country as part of a seemingly grassroots fly-the-flag campaign. Red crosses have also been painted on buildings in what some see as an intimidating gesture aimed at ethnic minorities.<\/p>\n

Starmer wrote on X that \u201cBritain is a nation proudly built on tolerance, diversity and respect. Our flag represents our diverse country and we will never surrender it to those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear and division.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON — Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced calls Monday to sanction Elon Musk after the X and Tesla…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[64609,233,59,232,57,58,2795,50,229,59095,56,54,55,231],"class_list":["post-138656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-64609","tag-article","tag-gb","tag-general-news","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-immigration","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-protests-and-demonstrations","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}