Musk Stokes Anti-Muslim Violence In Effort To Influence British Leaders
Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet and titular president of the U.S., has been extending his reach and meddling lately in British affairs.
Last month, Musk met at Mar-a-Lago with leaders of England’s right wing, anti-immigration movement to talk about how they can “save the west.”
Musk and trump also were on the list of the rich and famous for a gala party to be held in advance of the inauguration by Aaron Banks, another right wing, millionaire British businessman. Sadly for Banks but he has been told that he will not be granted a visa to come to the U.S., because of his alleged, past involvement with Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election.
And then there was Musk cutting ties with a leading, right wing British politician who would not support Musk’s calls for reduced sentences for Tommy Robinson, an imprisoned Islamophobe, and for mercy for another far-right organizer of last year’s violent anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant riots.
Robinson is linked with militant far right groups in the United States, and formed the English Defense League, a nationalist, anti-Muslim group known for its violent street protests in the late 2000s and 2010s. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has received funding from the Middle East Forum, a conservative anti-Muslim American think tank which has been a longtime supporter of Robinson.
Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, called Robinson an inspiration. Tarrio is serving a 22-year prison sentence for sedition related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol by trump supporters.
Mar-a-Lago Meeting
The meeting at trump’s Mar-a-Lago palace included Nigel Farage, an anti-immigrant, leading British official and billionaire Nick Candy. They were reported to have talked about the “Trump ground game” and “ongoing discussions on other areas.”
“We only have one more chance left to save the West, and we can do great things together,” Farage and Candy reportedly told Musk. “Our thanks also to President Trump for allowing us to use Mar-A-Lago for this historic meeting. The special relationship is alive and well.”
The meeting came soon after Candy pledged to raise more than $48,816,000 after he was appointed treasurer of Reform UK, a right-wing populist political party led by Nigel Farage. The party was formed in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, leading the successful move for the United Kingdom to pull out of the European Union.
Candy is a British billionaire luxury property developer and politician, who has been the treasurer of Reform UK since December 2024. In recent years Candy has developed a portfolio of global investments in high-tech, leading-edge technology through his private investment fund Candy Ventures. In 2023 Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and Candy Capital announced that they had formed a partnership to develop a “super-prime” real estate development in Dubai.
The portfolio also includes mining investments in the Runruno gold mine in the Philippines, which has faced opposition from human rights groups after the demolition of local communities in 2012, which caused injuries to six local people. The development also has been blamed for causing landslides leading to deaths in the area.
Candy and his wife, Australian-British, actress-musician Holly Valance, dined in April 2022 with trump and Farage at Mar-a-Lago.
Party Pooper
Banks, who in past years funded the Brexit movement, can’t even attend his own party, scheduled for Friday in Washington, D.C., in advance of trump’s inauguration. Banks said he was turned down for a visa in a “political decision” made by President Joe Biden’s administration in retaliation for Banks’s support of trump.
Farage is the guest of honor at the party, dubbed “Stars and Stripes and Union Jack Party.” A list of 300 invitees includes trump and Melania trump, Musk, former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.
Banks, referred to as the “father of Brexit,” used grandiose, trumpian language to explain that he was not granted a visa in “revenge for the failed Russia Hoax perpetrated on both sides of the Atlantic.”
“The Biden administration weaponized corrupt lawfare, politics and the ‘dying fake media’ and President Trump fought it all to win the election, the biggest comeback in political history,” Banks said. “President Trump was the victim of the Russia Hoax in the US, and I know better than most what that felt like.”
Banks said he was accused of Russian collusion in the Brexit campaign and was cleared by England’s National Crime Agency.
“My businesses were de-banked and attacked by vicious opponents during this period. All for supporting Brexit and President Trump,” Banks said in his best trump voice.
Banks owns a car insurance company called GoSkippy and claims that links in the probe of Russia’s possible support of the Brexit movement relate to his wife, Katya, who is Russian.
According to news reports, Banks met with Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador to the U.K., at least three times in the months leading up to the vote to exit the European Union. Banks also exchanged emails with the embassy and other Russian officials, including Alexander Udod, a diplomat who was subsequently expelled from the U.K. over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
Yakovenko was under investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller after he was named in the indictment of ex-trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos. Yakovenko was not charged, and he left his post in England when he was recalled to Russia.
Farage had links with Roger Stone, the political trickster close with trump and with Steve Bannon, a former close trump advisor. Farage met trump for the first time at a fundraiser for the GOP campaign in Jackson, Miss. Trump later invited the Brexiteers to a campaign rally and asked Farage to speak on stage.
“If I was an American citizen, I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me. In fact, I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if SHE paid me,” Farage told the approving crowd.
Farage went on to be regular speaker at trump campaigns in St. Louis, Las Vegas and in Michigan. After the Access Hollywood revelations in which trump bragged about groping women, Farage defended then-candidate trump on Fox News.
“He’s not running to be Pope,” Farage said.
Andrew McIntyre
Last week, Musk criticized British courts for sentencing McIntyre, 39, to seven and a half years in prison for stoking the anti-Muslim, Southport riots after three young girls were stabbed to death at a children’s dance class last July 29.
Hours after the girls were murdered in the northern English town of Southport, and before anyone was charged, McIntyre set up a Telegram channel called “Southport Wake Up.” Through posts filled with anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant abuse, McIntyre urged people to take to the streets, directing them to a mosque and calling for “war.”
McIntyre also posted a map, adding: “Mosque at the top of Hart St.”
The day after the disorder, McIntyre posted: “Well done last night lads, to all you heavy hitters.
McIntyre was working as a taxi driver when he was arrested in Liverpool, A knife was found hidden in the boot of his car and officers searched his home and found weapons and a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
McIntyre took part in two of several riots last summer. He pleaded guilty to encouraging violent disorder and criminal damage, and to possession of a knife. A day after his conviction, Musk posted on his social media platform X, “Over 7 years prison for social media posts … Whoever gave that sentence deserves prison themselves.”
Tommy Robinson
Robinson, a far right, political agitator is at the forefront of a growing movement that was behind anti-immigrant riots last summer. He was banned from Twitter in 2018 for breaching its rules on “hateful conduct” and his accounts on Facebook and Instagram were suspended the following year for repeatedly breaking rules on hate speech.
After Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X in 2022, Robinson’s account was reinstated. Robinson has more than a million followers and a video he posted called “Silenced” has had 55 million views. Musk responded to one of Mr. Robinson’s posts this year, apparently in approval, with two exclamation marks.
Robinson was implicated in the same riots that led to McIntyre’s arrest.
After three children died in a stabbing attack at a dance class in Southport, England, in August, Robinson was accused of helping foment the riots that followed. He spread false information about the identity of the attacker on social media and told his followers on X: “Get there and show your support. People need to rise up.”
Robinson has several criminal convictions and has served four stints in prison, in 2005 for assault, in 2012 for using someone else’s passport to travel to the United States, in 2014 for mortgage fraud and in 2018 for contempt of court.
The first anti-immigration riot began after mourners had gathered in Southport, England, on Tuesday, July 30, to honor the children who were stabbed to death. Soon, hundreds of violent rioters flooded the streets. More than 50 police officers were injured, as demonstrators threw bricks at a mosque, attacked the police, set cars on fire and damaged a convenience store.
Supporters of the English Defence League, an extremist anti-Islam organization formed by Robinson, were part of a large group that attacked a mosque in Southport. The mosque was targeted, followed by rioting after false rumors circulated on social media that a Syrian man had stabbed multiple children and two adults at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.
Police arrested a 17-year-old in the stabbings. Police did not identify the suspect, but said he was English and lived in the nearby village of Banks.
Robinson, 41, organized and promoted the rally, but did not attend because he was arrested on charges of repeatedly libeling a Syrian refugee in breach of a 2021 injunction.
Musk allowed users to post false information about the attack on his social media platform. Some posted lies about the attacker’s immigration status, incorrectly claiming he was an asylum seeker or that he had come to England illegally. Some of the posts received millions of views.
Robinson, and Andrew Tate, a British-American kickboxer and extreme online personality, were among those who fueled speculation.
Robinson shared a social media post in which a man asked: “Why has our government let this Syrian fella in” to stab “innocent children.”
Tate posted a video on X telling viewers that an “undocumented migrant decided to go into a Taylor Swift dance class today and stab six little girls, so someone arrived in the U.K. on a boat, nobody knew who he was, nobody knows where he’s from.” The video was viewed more than 14.9 million times.
Not unlike the situation involving trump and his supporters, some in England blamed the rioting on normalization of extreme anti-immigration attitudes, particularly the rise of Farage and Reform U.K.
As misinformation about the suspect spread, the police issued statements saying that he was born in Cardiff, Wales. But false claims continued to proliferate.
Violent unrest also spread with far-right demonstrations outside government buildings in London.