Elon Musk fanned the UK riots. Now he's trying to reshape British politics

A mere six months ago, the country was shaken by racist riots which saw far-right thugs on a rampage – attacking hotels housing people seeking safety in our country, damaging people’s cars and places of worship. These riots were enabled by misinformation and hate speech spread on X (formerly Twitter), with the platform’s owner Elon Musk fanning the flames and inciting violence by spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories about two-tier policing to his 190 million followers.

And now, Musk, the richest man in the world, fresh from supporting Donald Trump’s election win in the USA, is prepping to support Nigel Farage and Reform UK. Farage’s Reform Party won five seats in this year’s general election, squeezing the Conservative Party’s vote. And, after his eighth try, Farage was also finally elected as an MP. 

Weeks later, the country erupted into far-right rioting. Far from a spontaneous outpouring of discontent as some sections of the media and social media would have us believe. These were intentional acts of violence incited and co-ordinated over social media. But if we thought we saw the boiling point of Great British Racism in the summer 2024 riots, we have another thing coming for us. Elon Musk and Reform UK are a match made in hell.

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Over the last five years we’ve seen the language and policies towards migrants become increasingly more hostile and divisive – with politicians from all parties mimicking the language of the far-right.

Musk’s reign over X has seen the platform become a cesspit of hate speech with an outpouring of misinformation and disinformation. Many who share our positive views about migration have left the platform, as it’s become such a toxic space. For now, we’re hanging in there, because we know that voices like ours are critical to counter the hateful narrative that is being allowed to dominate. 

The environment Elon Musk created on X, enabled the organising of far-right riots and swept Donald Trump into the White House. If the transformation of Twitter to X and the 2024 US election are anything to go by, Musk is an expert at creating a hostile environment. The UKs anti-migrant environment is likely to feel very much like home.

And while we warned politicians not to allow Reform UK and Nigel Farage to dictate the terms of the debate on immigration, things have only become worse. Pandering to the far-right has not helped Labour win their favour, but it certainly hasn’t stoppedKeir Starmer from trying. 

At the last release of government immigration statistics, Starmer held an unprecedented press conference, where, puffed up and attempting to convey gravitas, he straight-facedly accused the previous administration – notorious for its anti-migrant stance – as “conducting an experiment in open borders“. 

Accusing the Conservative party of being ‘soft on immigration’ has added another dimension to the toxic anti-migrant debate in this country. What it is saying to migrant communities is that “there’s no one in your corner now” and it’s rolling out the red carpet for Elon Musk and Nigel Farage. 

As a migrants’ rights organisation we’re worried about our clients and the communities we serve, we can’t afford for our immigration policies to become even more divisive.

Instead of allowing hateful policies to dictate the narrative around migrants for the next four years, this is the time to draw a line and make it clear that the far-right will no longer dictate the arena of debate when it comes to migration.

This year a record number of people lost their lives trying to cross the Channel to safety—fleeing war, persecution, and the devastating impacts of climate change. But instead of having a national reckoning about how we stop these tragedies becoming commonplace, we are left reckoning with the decaying state of race relations in this country. 

The most recent data shows that immigration is not a negative in the eyes of the majority of people. Our government should be taking control of immigration – not by controlling numbers, but by being bold enough to fight the far-right’s narrative.

They need to listen to organisations like ours that work with migrants, to ordinary people who have friends, family and communities who value and love the migrants within their communities, and most importantly, to migrants themselves. This is the only way to build a fairer, happier and safer nation we can all be proud of.  

As comically supervillan-esque as it sounds, we have the world’s richest man teaming up with another whose entire career has been built on scapegoating migrant communities. If we don’t fight back now, things will only get worse.

Ravishaan Rahel Muthiah is communications director of the Joint Centre for the Welfare of Immigrants.

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