Musk hits back after being shunned from UK summit

BBC - The world's richest person, Elon Musk, has hit back after not being invited to the UK government's International Investment Summit.

He was not invited due to his social media posts during last month’s riots, the BBC understands.

"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," Mr Musk claimed on X.

Earlier this month, the government released some prisoners to reduce prison overcrowding, but no sex offenders were included.

Following disorder and rioting across the UK in August, some people were jailed for encouraging unrest on social media.

Violence spread across the country after a stabbing attack in Southport, in which three children attending a dance class were killed. At the time, Mr Musk posted on X, formerly Twitter, predicting civil war in the UK and repeatedly attacking the prime minister.

The summit in October is the key moment that PM Keir Starmer hopes to attract tens of billions in inward funding for business from the world’s biggest investors.

Mr Musk was invited to last year's event but did not attend. However, he took a starring role in November's AI Summit, including a fireside chat with then PM Rishi Sunak.

The government declined to comment on the tech entrepreneur not being invited to the summit and the billionaire's backlash to the decision.

During the August riots, Mr Musk shared, and later deleted, a conspiracy theory about the UK building “detainment camps” on the Falkland Islands for rioters, on X - the social media platform he owns.

At the time ministers said his comments were “totally unjustifiable" and "pretty deplorable".

The BBC understands this is why he has not been invited to join hundreds of the world’s biggest investors at the event on 14 October.

The government has been approached for comment.

Coming two weeks head of the Budget, the government is billing it as a huge opportunity to attract foreign investment to grow the UK economy. The Labour Party committed before the general election to hold this event within its first 100 days in office.

Under the Conservatives, Mr Musk, who owns or runs X, Tesla and SpaceX, was quietly shown around various UK sites with potential for a gigafactory for cars and batteries.

He has previously told journalists he opened a site in Germany and not the UK partly because of Brexit.

He is a regular at the equivalent French summit. In July, he attended a three-hour lunch with top executives with President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the Olympics earlier this summer.

Under his ownership of the site formerly known as Twitter, Mr Musk lifted the ban on far-right figures, including on the Britain First group.

The UK is considering a tougher Online Safety Act, after the role of misinformation in the widespread racist disorder in August.