The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, has responded after not receiving an invitation to the UK government’s International Investment Summit.
Reports indicate that his absence from the guest list is attributed to his social media activity during last month’s riots.
“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 several prisoners to alleviate overcrowding in prisons; however, those serving sentences for sex offenses were not among them.
In August, following disturbances and riots across the UK, several individuals were incarcerated for inciting unrest on social media.
The violence erupted nationwide after a stabbing incident in Southport, which resulted in the deaths of three children attending a dance class. At that time, Mr. Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter), predicting a civil war in the UK and criticizing the Prime Minister multiple times.
The upcoming summit in October is a crucial opportunity for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who hopes to secure tens of billions of pounds in investment from the world’s largest investors.
Mr. Musk received an invitation to last year’s event but did not attend. However, he played a prominent role in November’s AI Summit, participating in a fireside chat with then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The government chose not to comment on the absence of the tech entrepreneur from the summit or on Musk’s response to the decision.
Nonetheless, Jeremy Hunt, the former Conservative Chancellor and current Shadow Chancellor, told the BBC that Mr. Musk’s absence is a “big loss” for the summit.
“He told me last year he was planning a new car plant in Europe and had not decided where but the UK was a candidate,” Mr Hunt claimed.
During the August riots, Mr. Musk posted—and subsequently deleted—a conspiracy theory on X, the social media platform he owns, suggesting that the UK was constructing “detainment camps” for rioters on the Falkland Islands.
At that time, government ministers condemned his remarks as “totally unjustifiable” and “pretty deplorable.”
The BBC reports that this is the reason he has not been invited to join hundreds of the world’s leading investors at the event scheduled for October 14.