{"id":11607,"date":"2025-01-05T11:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-05T11:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/05\/britain-wants-to-get-close-to-trump-will-elon-musk-stand-in-the-way\/"},"modified":"2025-01-05T11:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T11:39:12","slug":"britain-wants-to-get-close-to-trump-will-elon-musk-stand-in-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/05\/britain-wants-to-get-close-to-trump-will-elon-musk-stand-in-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain wants to get close to Trump. Will Elon Musk stand in the way?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was not the start to 2025 that Keir Starmer wanted or expected: <\/strong>in the early hours of New Year\u2019s Day, Elon Musk lobbed a series of angry posts and allegations towards the British prime minister, engulfing his government in a very public fight. <\/p>\n

In the days since, the world\u2019s richest man has dredged up a painful, years-long scandal over grooming gangs and pushed for the release of Tommy Robinson, an imprisoned far-right agitator with a swelling social media following. <\/p>\n

The tech billionaire, who played a prominent role in US President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s election campaign, has posted or reposted on X about child sex abuse cases in the UK more than 50 times this week. <\/p>\n

He has called for Starmer and his safeguarding minister to be removed from power, for new elections to take place, and even for King Charles III to unilaterally dissolve parliament \u2013 something which hasn\u2019t happened for nearly two centuries and would cause a constitutional crisis. <\/p>\n

The topics represent the latest fascination of Musk, but his vexation is not new \u2013 as Trump\u2019s inauguration nears, the X owner has intervened with increasing ferocity in European politics and hailed far-right figures on the continent. <\/strong>He has repeatedly condemned the European Union\u2019s institutions and policy decisions, and Italy\u2019s president has warned him to stop meddling in the country\u2019s affairs. <\/p>\n

Musk now poses a delicate new challenge for Starmer. The British leader is taking great pains to charm <\/strong>Trump, while also hoping to hold back at home the growing influence of Reform UK, a populist, anti-immigration party that Musk has endorsed. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe will help us enormously because he\u2019s a hero figure, especially for the youth who really do admire this man,\u201d Reform leader Nigel Farage said of Musk on the GB News channel on Friday. \u201cHe\u2019s helping us because he has given us an understanding of how we did it in America. And that\u2019s very useful to us.\u201d <\/p>\n

Can Musk be ignored?<\/h2>\n

Musk\u2019s tussles with Starmer\u2019s Labour government did not begin this week. <\/p>\n

He had previously called Britain a \u201cpolice state\u201d over its crackdown on far-right rioters, who sparked violent clashes on the country\u2019s streets during the summer. He has long derided Starmer on his platform, and more recently hailed Reform UK, which since its founding in 2018 has capitalized on public frustration with the country\u2019s two major parties and now rivals each of them in opinion polling. <\/p>\n

He has prodded other European politicians too; in the past week the German government has accused Musk of attempting to influence the country\u2019s February election, through his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The group been accused of resurrecting Nazi-era ideology and slogans, and its youth arm has been designated by German authorities as an extremist organization. <\/p>\n

Now, Musk\u2019s growing infatuation with Tommy Robinson has positioned the billionaire as an idol for Britain\u2019s online far-right community. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was jailed for 18 months in October after he admitted to being in contempt of court by repeating false accusations about a Syrian refugee. <\/p>\n

For most in Westminster, Musk\u2019s anger \u2013 like much online trolling \u2013 remains little more than a sideshow. <\/p>\n

But privately, some Labour MPs are asking themselves an obvious question: why us? Unlike in Germany, there is no impending parliamentary election through which Musk can exert his influence. An election is not due to be held in Britain for more than four years, and Labour\u2019s government is relatively unpopular but, in parliamentary terms at least, rock solid. <\/p>\n

And for Starmer, Musk can\u2019t be entirely ignored. The prime minister has so far resisted taking Musk\u2019s bait \u2013<\/em> the billionaire has accused him of failing to act against grooming gangs while director of public prosecutions \u2013<\/em> but MPs will eventually want to see him take a stronger stand, to protect his ministers from torrents of online abuse. (Musk has repeatedly this week called for Starmer\u2019s safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, to be imprisoned \u2013 on Saturday calling her \u201cpure evil\u201d and \u201ca wicked creature\u201d \u2013 for prioritizing a local inquiry in Oldham over a national inquiry, a policy approach which is not a crime.) <\/p>\n

At the same time, the United States is Britain\u2019s closest and most important ally \u2013 and Musk seems to be, for now at least, the closest and most important ally of its incoming leader. <\/p>\n

Labour is desperate to build trust with the Trump administration; the government being shunned by the president-elect would only work in Farage\u2019s favor, and there is huge economic incentive in working with Trump on, for instance, exemptions from his tariff regime. <\/p>\n

The comments of Starmer\u2019s ministers reflect that dilemma. In a tip-toeing remark, health secretary Wes Streeting told reporters on Friday: \u201cSome of the criticisms that Elon Musk has made I think are misjudged and certainly misinformed, but we\u2019re willing to work with Elon Musk, who I think has got a big role to play with his social media platform to help us and other countries to tackle this serious issue.\u201d <\/p>\n

A delicate dance for Britain\u2019s right<\/h2>\n

It remains unclear how much influence Musk will have on Trump\u2019s decision-making \u2013 particularly on foreign policy, which is firmly outside his official remit as a co-head of the new Department of Government Efficienc\ufeffy. <\/p>\n

But his remarks are already having some impact in Britain \u2013 exposing the fault lines in a deeply divided and unusually malleable political landscape. <\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, reactively called on X for a \u201clong overdue\u2026 full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal.\u201d <\/p>\n

But her authority on the issue, as with so many others, is limited by her own involvement in an ousted but deeply disliked Conservative government. That government had, indeed, commissioned a years-long inquiry into child sexual abuse, which concluded in 2022. But the probe\u2019s leader subsequently criticized the former <\/strong>government\u2019s response to her findings, which included a key recommendation that reporting of child sex abuse should be mandatory. <\/p>\n

The long hangover of the Conservative era has allowed Farage to position his movement, with some success, as the \u201creal\u201d opposition in Britain, and Musk\u2019s growing interest in Reform represents an opportunity for Farage to further his standing. <\/p>\n

The populist leader predictably condemned Badenoch\u2019s comments and has attached himself to most of Musk\u2019s remarks. He talks openly about hoping for financial backing from Musk, ahead of a round of local elections in May in which Reform is on pace to perform well. <\/p>\n

But there are dangers for Britain\u2019s populist rabble-rouser, too. Echoing Musk\u2019s support for Robinson was a bridge too far for Farage, who told GB News: \u201c(Musk) sees Robinson as one of these people that fought against the grooming gangs. But of course the truth is Tommy Robinson\u2019s in prison not for that, but for contempt of court.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a political party aiming to win the next general election. He\u2019s not what we need,\u201d Farage said of Robinson. <\/p>\n

For leading politicians across Britain\u2019s ideological divide, Musk brings a heady mix of opportunity and risk. <\/p>\n

His tendency to fawn over far-right figures won\u2019t find much popular support in a country that, unlike some European nations, has not seen the emergence of a serious, extreme right-wing political movement \u2013 a fact Farage will remember even as he pushes for the US magnate\u2019s financial backing. <\/p>\n

But in government, outwardly shunning Musk is not yet an option. The delicate nature of Starmer\u2019s relationship with Trump may depend on keeping the billionaire at arm\u2019s length \u2013 for as long as that remains possible. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was not the start to 2025 that Keir Starmer wanted or expected: in the early hours of New Year\u2019s Day, Elon Musk lobbed a series of angry posts and allegations towards the British prime minister, engulfing his government in a very public fight. In the days since, the world\u2019s richest man has dredged up <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}