Elon Musk snub from UK investment summit defended by government
Technology secretary Peter Kyle has suggested that Elon Musk was not invited to the government’s international investment summit due to his tendency to avoid such events.
Previous reports suggested Musk, the owner of X and Tesla, was omitted from the guest list following controversial social media comments he made regarding Britain’s summer riots, where he controversially claimed civil war was “inevitable.”
In response to the snub, Musk recently said on X: “I don’t think anyone should go to the UK when they’re releasing convicted pedophiles in order to imprison people for social media posts.”
However, in an interview with Times Radio this morning, Kyle said: “Elon Musk has never come to any of the past investment summits that have been held under the previous government, he doesn’t tend to do these sort of events, but I stand absolutely ready to engage with him, to talk about any potential global investments he’s making – I’m not aware of any at this moment in time.”
He added that “we have good engagement with some of his companies” and praised Musk for the safe landing of his booster rocket yesterday.
On Sky News today, Kyle also denied that Musk was not invited because he called the prime minister “two tier Kier”.
The international investment summit, taking place today, will see Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledge to slash red tape that is hindering investment in the UK.
Australian infrastructure giant Macquarie is expected to announce £20bn in new investment in the UK, and total pledges from businesses at the summit could reach as high as £50bn.
High profile speakers at the event include Blackrock boss Larry Fink, former Google chairman Eric Schmidt, ex-England manager Gareth Southgate, and Aviva chief Amanda Blanc.
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.