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 people serving sentences for sex offences 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 Sir Keir Starmer hopes will attract tens of billions of pounds 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.
But Jeremy Hunt, the former Conservative chancellor and now the shadow chancellor, told the BBC it was a “big loss” not to have Mr Musk at 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 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. (BBC)