PA Media/dpa
London
The British government insisted Prime Minister Keir Starmer was running an “unashamedly” pro-growth government after Elon Musk lashed out at his policies.
Tesla boss Musk said “very few companies” would be willing to put money into the UK under “the current administration”.
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.
The British government rejected Musk’s assessment of its policies, but sought to avoid being drawn into a public spat with the owner of the X social media site and a member of 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, Musk said: “Very few companies will be willing to invest in the UK with the current administration.” Musk is rumoured to be considering a major donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
He met both Farage and Reform’s treasurer Nick Candy at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month.
The tech entrepreneur’s relationship with Starmer 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.
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.