Senior Labour politician questions Elon Musk’s ‘reluctance’ to appear before MPs in parliament
Share:
Chair of parliament’s technology committee invited Elon Musk in December to give evidence before MPs. A senior Labour MP has questioned Elon Musk’s apparent “reluctance” to appear before MPs in parliament despite the billionaire’s barrage of interventions on UK politics using his social media site X.
![[Chi Onwurah said she had been shocked by Elon Musk’s ‘aggressive attacks’ on MPs]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2020/11/18/13/GettyImages-1179253867-1.jpg)
The House of Commons technology committee invited the world’s richest man in December to give evidence in parliament as part of its inquiry into the role of social media and misinformation in fuelling the summer riots that erupted in the wake of the Southport attack.
Although Mr Musk – who is set to assume a key role in Donald Trump’s incoming US administration – is reportedly yet to officially reply to the invitation, he initially responded on X by claiming that MPs would be summoned to the US “to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens”.
Noting that the committee “would be quite open to travelling to talk to him” so long as Mr Musk is willing to pay for their flights, the cross party group’s Labour chair Chi Onwurah questioned his apparent reticence to give evidence to MPs in Westminster.
“He has no qualms about using his platform to say all kinds of things about the British government and British society and yet he seems reluctant to actually come and talk to us where he can have his views explained,” Ms Onwurah told the Sunday Mirror.
Having suggested that the King should dissolve parliament, just months after the general election, the billionaire has launched a series of extraordinary attacks on Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers, while demanding the release of jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
