Elon Musk should be “regarded as a national enemy” of the UK over his attacks on Keir Starmer, a former Labour leader has declared.
Neil Kinnock said supporters of all parties should oppose the tech billionaire, who is set to be a major figure in the incoming Donald Trump administration.
Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the X social media platform, has spent months lambasting the prime minister over his response to last summer’s riots, the state of the UK economy and, most recently, the child grooming gangs scandal.
He accused Starmer of being “complicit” and of failing to prosecute those involved when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Starmer hit out at Musk last week, saying he had “crossed a line” by personally attacking safeguarding minister Jess Phillips and saying that she should be jailed.
On Radio 4′s Broadcasting House programme on Sunday, Kinnock - who led Labour from 1983 until 1992 - said politicians should unite against Musk.
He said: “Trump has given Musk official status. He is going to be in charge, together with another guy, of a federal government department, and that’s on top of being the most powerful private individual in human history, as well as being the world’s richest man.
“He’s gunning for Keir and he’s got to be resisted, and I don’t think that should be limited to Labour supporters.
“I think that when somebody has very clearly declared antagonism on this level to the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he should be regarded as a national enemy.”
Kinnock’s comments came as Dan Carden became the first Labour MP to echo Tory and Reform UK calls for a national inquiry into the grooming scandal.
He said: “The public call for justice must be heeded. It is shocking that people in positions of power could have covered up and refused to act to avoid confronting racial for cultural issues or because victims were poor or working-class.
“We must question and challenge the orthodoxy of progressive liberal multiculturalism that led to authorities failing to act. We need a new doctrine to take our multi-ethnic society into the future.”