Downing Street rejects Musk’s suggestion companies are turning away from UK
31 December 2024, 08:24
The tech entrepreneur said ‘very few companies’ were willing to invest in the UK under Sir Keir Starmer’s administration.
Downing Street insisted Sir Keir Starmer was running an “unashamedly” pro-growth government after Elon Musk lashed out at his policies.
Tesla boss Mr Musk said “very few companies” would be willing to put money into the UK under “the current administration”.
Mr Musk, a close ally of US President-elect Donald Trump, was responding to calls to build a new plant for his electric cars in Scotland.
Very few companies will be willing to invest in the UK with the current administration
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2024
Downing Street rejected Mr Musk’s assessment of the Government’s policies, but sought to avoid being drawn into a public spat with the owner of the X social media site and a member of Mr Trump’s inner circle.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I’m not going to kind of get into commentary on individual comments, but if you look at what’s happened since the election, you’ve seen the £63 billion of additional investment from the investment summit.
“You’ve seen the Government respond to some of the businesses’ key concerns in the UK, which is lack of stability, and the Government’s brought back that stability, both politically and economically.”
The spokesman said “the Government has taken an unashamedly pro-growth and pro-business approach”.
Writing on X, Mr Musk said: “Very few companies will be willing to invest in the UK with the current administration.”
Mr Musk is rumoured to be considering a major donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
He met both Mr Farage and Reform’s treasurer Nick Candy at Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month.
The tech entrepreneur’s relationship with Sir Keir and the Labour government is rocky.
In September, the Tesla and SpaceX boss hit out at the UK after it was reported he had not been invited to a major investment summit because of his social media activities during the summer riots.
Mr Musk said: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted paedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts.”
During the unrest over the summer, the billionaire had engaged with posts by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, suggested that civil war in the UK was “inevitable”, and retweeted a fake Daily Telegraph headline suggesting rioters would be sent to detention camps in the Falkland Islands.
While Rishi Sunak was in No 10, Mr Musk was guest of honour at an AI safety summit and took part in an “in conversation” event with the then-prime minister.
