What should Keir Starmer do about Elon Musk?

How should the Labour government deal with Elon Musk? It’s a question that Keir Starmer has been grappling with since violent disorder broke across England, initially stemming from false claims over the identity of the attacker in the Southport stabbings. Since then, ministers say social media has been used to encourage riots. While Telegram is of particular concern in the Home Office (as I report in this week’s politics column) for how it has been used by would-be rioters, it’s X – formerly known as Twitter – where Starmer has been the subject of a series of attacks by the site’s owner Elon Musk.

As well as branding the Labour leader ‘#TwoTierKeir’, Musk has turned his attention to Labour MP Lauren Edwards for past controversial comments and also shared a fake Telegraph article on ‘emergency detainment camps’ in the Falklands – before deleting it. The decision by the Prime Minister’s spokesperson to slap down Musk’s claim that ‘civil war’ was inevitable in the UK has led to a fierce backlash from Musk.