Ministers should block Tesla from receiving government contracts over Elon Musk’s warning that “violence is coming” to Britain, the Lib Dems say.
Party leader Ed Davey said Britain’s political leaders “should respond” to the tech billionaire’s remarks, which he made at a far-right “united kingdom rally” in London on Saturday.
Musk also called for the “dissolution of parliament” and fresh elections to throw out the job.
He told the crowd that they would have to “fight back or die” if they wanted to defend their country.
“Violence will come to you,” he said. “You will not have a choice. You are in a fundamental element here where, whether you choose violence or not, violence comes to you. You either fight or you die. That is the truth.”
The Metropolitan Police later revealed that 26 officers had been injured in clashes with protesters, four of them seriously.
Davey has written to Keir Starmer, accusing Musk of a “reckless and dangerous attack” on British values and urging the Prime Minister to condemn him.
He said: “We need to make it clear that no individual, no matter how wealthy or powerful, can get away with using their platform to inflame tensions and cause violence.”
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today program on Monday, Davy said: “This is a man who said civil war in the UK was inevitable. He has called on Americans to overthrow the ‘tyrannical government in Britain’. He is not using language wisely, he is deeply irresponsible, deeply dangerous.”
“The Liberal Democrats and I have called on Elon Musk, I think it’s time for all the major political party leaders to call him out. This is not acceptable language. He is interfering in our politics and when the second richest man in the world does that I think we should respond.”
A Lib Dem source told HuffPost UK that the government should target Musk’s company, Tesla.
“We need to hit him in the pocket where it hurts,” the source said.
Meanwhile, Baroness Smith, the Minister for Women and Equalities, became the first government figure to directly criticize Musk.
She told the Today programme: “Those words were wrong, they are dangerous. We are a country that believes in the right to protest and the right to free speech, but we are also a country that recognizes and celebrates our diversity. That is actually what our flag is about.”
She added: “For Elon Musk to talk about violence in our political system when members of parliament in this country have been killed as part of our democratic system is completely unacceptable. That is not how we behave in this country and that is not the basis of our democracy.”
