Elon Musk calls for the release of Tommy Robinson, figure of the British extreme right

This is yet another interference by the owner of social network X in UK politics. American billionaire Elon Musk demanded, Thursday, January 2, the release of British far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, recently convicted by the courts.

Since Labor returned to power in July and the anti-migrant and anti-Muslim riots which shook the United Kingdom this summer, Elon Musk has increased his comments on British news, judging that a “civil war” was ” inevitable “ in the country and that foreign investors were now fleeing the country.

He especially attacked the government of Keir Starmer, accused of repressing the rioters too harshly and of directing “a tyrannical police state”. But the conservative opposition is also worried about his connections with the anti-immigration Reform UK party, whose leader, Nigel Farage, he recently met in Florida. This time, it is Tommy Robinson that Elon Musk, who has become close to President-elect Donald Trump, is giving his support. “Free Tommy Robinson!” »he wrote on his X account on Thursday.

Founder of a small group from the hooligan movement

Real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, Tommy Robinson was sentenced at the end of October to eighteen months in prison for violating a 2021 court decision which prohibited him from repeating defamatory comments towards a Syrian refugee. “Why is Tommy Robinson in solitary confinement for telling the truth? »Elon Musk further affirmed.

This emblematic figure of the British extreme right, founder in 2009 of the English Defense League, a small group originating from the hooligan movement, has already been condemned several times in recent years, notably for disorderly conduct. public order. Followed by more than a million people on

On “In the UK, serious crimes like rape require approval from the Prosecution Service (CPS) before the police can charge suspects. Who was in charge of the CPS when gangs of rapists were able to exploit young girls without having to face justice? Keir Starmer »writes Elon Musk. “A new election should be held in the United Kingdom”he adds.

Elon Musk, however, is not bothered by the facts: it was Keir Starmer who, when he was responsible for public prosecutions for England and Wales, in 2013, launched the first criminal prosecutions against the Rochdale gang, in the north of England, a child crime network run mainly by British people of Pakistani origin.

Repeated attacks

This network had certainly been operating for years but it is much more the Greater Manchester police that an independent report published in early 2024 points the finger at for the slowness with which the victims were taken care of. According to this report commissioned by the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, the police did not take seriously, despite warnings from social workers, the testimonies of young girls, from very disadvantaged backgrounds, victims of gangs. When he was still head of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer also launched an internal reform of the way in which this service handled cases of rape and sexual violence, so that the perpetrators of these crimes were more closely prosecuted and convicted.

Two other child crime ring scandals have hit the headlines in recent years, in Rotherham and Telford, also involving attackers mostly of Indian-Pakistani origin. The British far right and the most right-wing fringe of the Tories regularly accuse local authorities and the police of having turned a blind eye for too long for fear of being accused of racist bias.

The Labor government has decided not to respond to the repeated attacks from the American billionaire and businessman. He is much more concerned about Mr. Musk's desire to massively finance the British far-right Reform UK party. Nothing in national law prohibits donations or limits their amount. The only condition is that the donor is a British citizen or that the payment is made by a company with a tax presence in the United Kingdom. With a few tens of millions of pounds sterling, Elon Musk could attempt a real destabilization of the British political landscape, Reform UK having only five MPs but having the wind in its sails in the polls (it is hot on the heels of Labor and the Conservative Party with around 20% voting intentions).