Downing Street hits back at Musk’s suggestion companies are turning away from UK
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Downing Street has hit back at Elon Musk's criticism, asserting that Sir Keir Starmer is leading an "unashamedly" pro-growth government. The Tesla supremo had earlier claimed that "very few companies" would want to invest in Britain under the current leadership. Responding to suggestions of setting up a new electric car factory in Scotland, Musk, who is chummy with US President-elect Donald Trump and owns the X social media platform, expressed his scepticism about UK investment prospects.
However, Number 10 was keen to sidestep a full-blown row with the tech billionaire, who is part of Trump's inner circle. The Prime Minister's spokesperson stated: "I’m not going to kind of get into commentary on individual comments, but if you look at what’s happened since the election, you’ve seen the £63bn of additional investment from the investment summit.".
“You’ve seen the Government respond to some of the businesses’ key concerns in the UK, which is lack of stability, and the Government’s brought back that stability, both politically and economically.”. The spokesman said “the Government has taken an unashamedly pro-growth and pro-business approach”.
Writing on X, Mr Musk said: “Very few companies will be willing to invest in the UK with the current administration.”. Mr Musk is also rumoured to be considering a major donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party after meeting Farage and the party's treasurer Nick Candy at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month.
The tech mogul's ties with Sir Keir and the Labour leadership are on rocky ground. Back in September, the Tesla and SpaceX head boss hit out at Britain following reports he was snubbed from a key investment summit due to his social media activities during the summer riots.
