Gavin Grey: UK Correspondent on the conflict between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Elon Musk, far-right protests

The UK Prime Minister is in a war of words with Elon Musk as far-right protests continue across the country. 

Almost 400 people have been arrested following last week's stabbings at a dance class that killed three girls and left several wounded. 

The tech billionaire posted on his social media platform X saying civil war is inevitable, to which the Prime Minister's spokesperson says there's no justification for the comments. 

UK Correspondent Gavin Grey told Ryan Bridge that Elon Musk has continued with his criticism of Sir Keir Starmer and his government. 

He says Musk posted a video of someone reportedly getting arrested for offensive comments online, asking if it's Britain or the Soviet Union. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The riots spending violence in the UK. Devin Gray's a
UK and Europe correspondent Gavin Good to have you on
the program this morning. What's Elon Musk talking about civil war?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah? Very interesting, Ryan, So he's tweeted but on X
that he said civil war is inevitable. It was in
response to a video showing people aiming fireworks at police.
The Prime minister spokesperson hit backs and there's absolutely no
justification and said that actually social media companies should be
doing more in order to control some of the wild

(00:34):
rumors sweeping on it and the fact they're being used
as sort of invitations to come and organize a riot
sort of thing. Anyway, it wasn't over then because then
Elon Musk replied saying that Sekir Starmer, our prime minister
had said he would not tolerate at tax on mosques
or Muslim communities, to which Elon musks, well, shouldn't you

(00:55):
be concerned about attacks on all communities? He said, when
he saw a video of a person being arrested for
offensive comments online, he asked, is this Britain or the
Soviet Union? I can't see Ryan, this row ending anytime soon.
I don't think Elon Musk will start tweeting stop tweeting,
and I don't think that we are going to see

(01:16):
the Prime Minister back down either. This disorder, as you
pointed out, has now lasted a week and now the
government is citing that it may well start to use
terrorism legislation in order to take some of those responsible
to court.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Goodness, mate, the man's been hospitalized as well.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
This is in Belfast, yeah, and I think it's an
indication of the fact that this is not just about
far right motives or about immigration, because police in Belfast,
in Northern Ireland are saying that this attack, which left
this man in his fifties really pretty seriously injured and
he's in a hospital, definitely included a paramilitary element. What

(01:56):
does that mean where you'll remember the struggles and the
truble in Ireland, Northern Ireland in the seventies and eighties
and the terrorism element there and in this particular issue,
witnesses reported seeing attack a stamp on this man's head.
They believe it was racially motivated, while other members of
the public tried to shield this man. There was prior

(02:19):
to the attack a lot of petrol bomb throwing, masonry
and bricks also thrown towards police, and a land rover
from the Police Service of Northern Ireland set alighte Up
to one hundred people involved, three hundred police officers trying
to keep the peace. We've been sephalite and stones thrown,
pretty ugly scenes and here we are, just one week

(02:39):
on and still on a nightly basis, we're hearing.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
A different disorder in different cities.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, and Gavin, thank you for that update. Devin Gray,
you can you're correspond for.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
More from News Talks.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
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