Elon Musk is influencing British politics. He must be stopped
KLet’s assume that vice president J.D. Vance was playing American political games when he chose to comment on the murder of Southampton student Henry Nowak. Mr. Vance’s contribution was arrogant, ignorant and offensive.
He claimed that the 18-year-old’s death was a sign of a dying “civilization” and that he would still be alive today “if the last few generations of European elites had stood against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of immigrants, many of whom despised the West and the people who loved it.”
Mr Vance’s unwelcome comments came after the US State Department posted a comment about the murder on Elon Musk’s social media platform X: “Ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing are glaring symptoms of the decline of civilization.”
Perhaps Mr. Vance did not want to be left behind by a department headed by Marco Rubio, his rival for the Republican presidential nomination. No matter who the candidate is, immigration will be one of the issues in the 2028 election campaign, and one of the ways American politicians are posing on the issue is by portraying Europe as a crime-ridden hellhole dominated by non-white immigration. In some ways it’s easier for them to do this, given that neither they nor their voters know much about us.
They have no idea, for example, that murder rates in Britain and throughout Europe are a fraction of those in the United States. Or that crime in Britain overall has fallen significantly over the last 30 years (to be fair, not many Brits know this; this is one of those things where perception differs from reality).
Sir Keir Starmer was therefore entirely right to respond politely but firmly to Mr Vance’s rude and undiplomatic comments. The Prime Minister was right to accuse unnamed foreign actors of “trying to foment division on our streets” and to call on these unnamed agitators to “respect the wishes” of Henry Nowak’s family, who said they did not want his death to be used to create hatred or tension.
But Sir Keir went further. He accused foreign powers of “trying to interfere with our democracy.” By this we assume he doesn’t mean just Mr. Vance, or even just Mr. Vance, Mr. Rubio, and Donald Trump (who has repeatedly said Britain would “go to hell” over immigration).
We assume the Prime Minister is also referring to Mr Musk, who uses
Mr Musk used his platform to promote the Restore Britain party founded by MP Rupert Lowe, who was too toxic for Nigel Farage. This is not just a transatlantic exchange of views on political philosophy; It is a direct intervention in British politics. Rebecca Shepherd, the Restore Britain candidate in the Makerfield by-election, appears to have enough support from Reform candidate Robert Kenyon to influence the outcome of the by-election.
This is unacceptable. Our democracy must be protected. The government has recently tightened the rules on foreign donations to British parties. But the rules on foreign ownership of the media need to be reviewed to ensure that a foreign plutocrat like Mr Musk cannot use his own poison factory to influence the UK election.
Mr Musk is entitled to his views – of course he is – but he is not entitled to use his money to buy influence in British politics.
