Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday told reporters that Elon Musk should stop meddling in UK politics after the X owner posted comments about a high-profile murder that has provoked public outrage and demonstrations.
The case centers on 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who last year was handcuffed by British police while he lay dying from stab wounds after his killer falsely claimed he had been the victim of a racist attack. The assailant, described in reports as a Sikh man, was sentenced on Monday. Video footage released following the sentencing showed officers failing to respond to the pleas of a dying, innocent man and has since generated anger and a political storm over how police treat people of different ethnicities.
Starmer has said there are serious questions about the police response that need to be addressed. At the same time, he condemned a violent and disorderly protest that took place on Tuesday night and described it as "unforgivable" to exploit the death to stoke division. "Musk again has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division. That is not who we are in Britain," Starmer told reporters.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Starmer’s remarks. The public exchange with Musk comes as SpaceX, the aerospace company linked to Musk, prepares to float what the article describes as possibly the most valuable initial public offering ever.
Musk had used his platform to post about the case on X, suggesting in posts that the police are biased against white people and sharing other users’ critical commentary about how the incident was handled. One of Musk’s posts included the line: "The West has created an utterly evil state religion where an accusation of ’racism’ is the gravest offense that can be committed, even worse than rape or murder!"
The police and government have rejected claims that bias affected their actions. Nowak’s family met privately with Starmer on Thursday and described the treatment he received from police as "inhumane and degrading." After the sentencing, the family urged that his death should not be "used to create further division, hatred or tension."
Starmer has clashed with Musk previously. The prime minister criticized Musk in January 2025 over his public statements alleging that Starmer failed in his earlier role as chief public prosecutor between 2008 and 2013 to prosecute groups of men, mostly of a South Asian background, who sexually abused girls. Starmer has defended his record from that time.
Separately, Starmer has supported a Labour lawmaker who is suing Musk’s xAI after she said the Grok AI platform was used to fabricate sexualised images of her. Starmer has publicly criticised Grok over such images in the past, and X has taken steps to comply with UK law in response to those concerns.
The article also includes a reference to an investment-focused promotional segment noting a question about whether to invest $2,000 in SPCX. It states that ProPicks AI evaluates SPCX alongside thousands of other companies using more than 100 financial metrics and that the tool seeks to identify risk-reward opportunities. This section characterises ProPicks AI as using powerful AI to generate stock ideas and to assess fundamentals, momentum and valuation, and notes that it highlights whether SPCX appears in its strategies.
Contextual notes
- Starmer has demanded answers on police conduct in the Nowak case while also condemning violent protests that exploited the incident.
- Musk’s posts on X accused police of bias and criticised what he framed as Western attitudes toward accusations of racism.
- The exchange unfolds as SpaceX prepares for a potentially very large IPO, a fact noted in the article.