Elon Musk has repeated a right-wing conspiracy theory in his latest attack on Keir Starmer’s response to the riots which have swept the UK over the past week.
The X boss called the prime minister “two tier Keir”, a reference to disputed claims that the police have been harsher in response to recent disorder than the pro-Palestine demonstrations and the violence in Harehills two weeks ago.
It is the latest salvo in the escalating war of words between the tech billionaire and the government.
It kicked off on Sunday when Musk claimed “civil war is inevitable” in the UK following the riots sparked by the murder of three children in Southport last week.
That was dismissed by No10 yesterday, with the PM’s offical spokesman saying: “There’s no justification for comments like that.”
Responding later to a video posted on X by Starmer on Monday afternoon in which he said the government “will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities”, Musk replied: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on all communities?”
Justice minister Heidi Alexander waded into the spat this morning by describing Musk’s remarks as “pretty deplorable”.
In his latest outburst, Musk responded to a video of a group of Muslims attacking a pub in Birmingham by again asking: “Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?” and tagging Starmer.
Musk then added in a reply to that post: ”#TwoTierKeir”.
Among those who have used that description are Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice.
Asked to respond, a No10 spokesperson told HuffPost UK: “Keir spoke to the two tier policing claim yesterday.”
The PM had said: “There is no two-tier policing. There is policing without fear or favour – exactly as it should be, exactly what I would expect and require. So that is a non-issue.”