On Wednesday, it emerged that MPs on the Commons science and technology committee, chaired by Labor’s Chi Onwurah, intended to summon Musk to question him about the spread of misinformation on X, formerly Twitter. He replied: “They will be summoned to the United States of America to explain their censorship and threats against American citizens. »

Skirmishes between Musk and Labor which began this summer does not appear to have been of much help to Starmer’s relationship with the man who became one of Donald Trump’s closest lieutenants.

On Tuesday, Lord Mandelson, tipped to become the UK’s next ambassador to Washington and one of Labour’s shrewdest operators, warned: “(Musk) is a sort of technological, industrial and commercial phenomenon. And it would be unwise, in my view, for Britain to ignore it. You cannot continue these quarrels. You can’t afford it. We should try to get him into touch as soon as possible.

But Musk, who will lead Trump’s new Department of Government Effectivenessis not the only member of the president-elect’s team to take a dim view of today’s Britain. Trump’s allies appear to view Britain as a shining example of what will happen if governments try to attack free speech – and the effects of mass migration.

In July, J.D. VanceTrump’s pick for vice president, said: “I have to pick on the UK” and claimed that “since Labor… took over (the UK would be) the first truly Islamist country to acquire nuclear weapons. Last month, Vance said: “London doesn’t seem entirely English to me anymore, does it?

Labor took Vance’s initial remarks as an attack on Britain’s diversity, with James Murray, the Treasury minister, saying that “in Britain we are very proud of our diversity”. Angela Raynerthe Deputy Prime Minister, also responded: “We have won votes in all different communities, right across the country, and we want to govern on behalf of Britain and also work with our international allies. »

And it seems the scale of illegal migration to the UK could also influence Musk’s views, both on the Labor side and on Modern Britain. In September, in a possible indication of how he might view Labor, he tweeted: “Mass illegal immigration will ensure permanent one-party rule in America, just as it did in California.”

“Since the Democratic Party is soft on crime, it is also heavily favored by criminals, so their perverse but very real incentive is to maximize criminal immigration. Once you understand incentives, behaviors are easy to predict.

The irony is that before his recent criticism, there was ample evidence of Musk’s attachment to the UK.

“Margaret Thatcher was like my English grandmother”

Indeed, in April 2013, Musk revealed that he was a fan of Margaret Thatcher. He wrote: “I always admired Margaret Thatcher – she was tough, but sensible and fair, a bit like my English grandmother. »

He added: “Britain has gone from dreary to great. »

Musk’s “English Nana” was Cora Amelia Robinson, born in Liverpool and married to Elon’s South African grandfather, Walter Henry James Musk.

Musk emigrated from South Africa to Canada in 1989, but eventually moved to California’s Silicon Valley and became an American citizen. In 2002, he made his first fortune thanks to his involvement in PayPal.

Two years later, Musk would use that money to invest in automotive startup Tesla before eventually taking control of the company.

In 2008, he met Talulah Riley, the British actress who starred in Pride and prejudice and the Saint-Trinienin a London nightclub, and two years later they get married in Dornoch Cathedral in the Highlands.

Their the marriage ended in 2016. But, in 2022, court documents revealed that during Musk’s legal battle with Twitter, Riley urged him to buy the platform, saying: “It is very easy to exploit and is used by radicals for purposes of large-scale social engineering. And this shit is infecting the world. Please do something about waking up.