Elon Musk dismisses UK snub, says he doesn’t want to go anyway

Billionaire Elon Musk hit back Thursday at reports he was not invited to an upcoming U.K. investment summit over his incendiary social media posts about far-right riots that engulfed swathes of the country this summer.

“I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted pedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts,” Musk wrote on X in response to a post sharing the news of Britain’s snub, which was first reported by the BBC.

At the October summit, Prime Minister Keir Starmer hopes to gather hundreds of leading investors with the aim of attracting tens of billions of pounds in funding for the U.K. and kick-starting economic growth.

As violence spread across the U.K. in the wake of a stabbing attack in Southport in which three children were killed, Musk repeatedly attacked the U.K.’s prime minister on X and predicted a “civil war” in the U.K.

The government subsequently promised to bring those who took part in the riots to justice — even as it has had to release some other inmates ahead of schedule to ease pressure on its creaking prison system.

Musk branded Starmer “two-tier Keir,” claiming that British police deal less harshly with violence perpetrated by non-white offenders. He also compared the U.K. to the Soviet Union and shared — and later deleted — a conspiracy theory about the U.K. building “detainment camps” on the Falkland Islands to house rioters.

His comments earned him rebukes from ministers at the time who decried his comments as “totally unjustifiable” and “pretty deplorable.”

Musk did not attend a similar investment summit hosted by the previous Conservative government last year, but was invited, according to the BBC.

However, he was heavily involved in an AI Safety Summit hosted by the Conservatives in November, including a fireside chat with then-PM Rishi Sunak. In the wake of the riots, Labour politicians blasted Sunak for cozying up to Musk.

The CEOs of companies including BNY Mellon, Blackstone and CyrusOne confirmed their attendance at the International Investment Summit last month.