Elon Musk steps up attacks on UK government, says Charles should dissolve parliament

World's richest man Elon Musk has now taken his campaign to attack the UK government – and Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally – to the country's monarch.

Posting on Musk's social media platform X, on which he has been spending the day railing about British policy and politics, the billionaire businessman said on Friday that King Charles "should dissolve parliament," a day after accusing Starmer of covering up crimes committed as part of a "rape gang" in the United Kingdom.

Musk's campaign to smear and harass Starmer's government, which took office in July 2024, reached new heights this week.

On Thursday, Musk spent a good amount of his morning tweeting – Xing? – a long series of criticisms of British policy. The tweets started with a screed accusing Starmer – whose only political job between 2013 and yesterday was to serve 4 years in Parliament and be leader of the opposition, from November 2019 until being ousted as leader after a general election rout in 2024 – of failing to act against a "rape gang" while he headed the Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013.

The term "rape gang" in that context refers to an array of sexual abuse scandals involving hundreds of people in numerous towns across northern England's industrial cities over several decades – a pattern that came to light, starting in 2013, as part of what is widely called Operation Hydrant.

Responding to a tweet about falling approval ratings for Starmer's administration, Musk said that the UK "should have a new election."

In normal circumstances, the next scheduled UK general election will be 2029 – though Starmer could call an early election if he so chose. In reality, Starmer has said that will never happen. He could also be ousted and replaced as leader of the parliamentary majority – Labour, and thus prime minister – if he lost a vote of no confidence. But that's not going to happen either – Labour is the only party to hold an outright majority in the House of Commons, which gives Starmer significant political leverage.

And anyway, Musk isn't finished tarring Starmer and his government.

In a newer attack posted Friday, Musk appeared to endorse revolution. Musk retweeted a post suggesting that Charles "should dissolve parliament and order an election … in the national interest," and protect "British safety and interest." Musk added simply, "Yes."

While monarchs still technically retain the ability to dissolve, summon, and prorogue Parliament, the power is merely symbolic and happens only at the request of the prime minister. In the unlikely event that Charles decided on his own to order a new election, he'd probably precipitate a UK constitutional crisis. (Just ask Australia's Malcolm Turnbull, who threatened to do that very thing to then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, and found himself with a constitutional law lesson instead.)

Also posting on X Friday: "Keir Starmer presided over the UK rape of hundreds of women. How could anyone sleep easy knowing this person has been made the UK prime minister!?" (Because Starmer had nothing even remotely to do with those scandals.)

Plus: "Keir Starmer, having overseen the UK rape crisis from within the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], has proven himself to be a dangerous criminal with an obvious interest in concealing the true scale of the child sex-abuse scandal."

Plus: "The Keir Starmer rape trial starts soon; the trial of Keir Starmer begins now. It will take many months and will be the trial of the century. Starmer must fall. He will be charged. The CPS was asleep for years on perhaps the biggest mass crime of the UK century. Starmer was in charge of the CPS at the relevant time. He must pay for this crime. How could anyone trust him when we know for certain he has lied, consistently, about this entire matter?"

Then: "Keir Starmer, CPS boss, enabled the UK rape crisis. Keir Starmer must fall. CPS under Starmer did virtually nothing in response to the UK sex-abuse scandal, and Starmer, for some reason, was not charged."

And finally, just in case he wasn't clear enough about calling for the toppling of the UK's democratically elected government: "Keir Starmer oversaw the CPS which ignored the biggest mass crime of the modern UK. Keir Starmer did nothing about hundreds of British child rapes. Keir Starmer was CPS chief for six years. Keir Starmer, by his silence, condoned the largest mass crime in British history. What crime should Keir Starmer be charged with?"

And with that he ended the day.

For what it's worth, it's not uncommon around these parts for people to complain that Starmer sounds just like a boring, middle-class, reasonable adult, and that it would just be more fun if he didn't take the role of defending UK democracy seriously. For what it's worth, Starmer probably does deserve some light ribbing for being a bit of a buzzkill. That, plus a good argument that, rather than simply complaining, political opponents and journalists should be working out ways of actually solving some of the problems he has highlighted in office with a great deal of evidence and detail. For what it's worth, it's possible to agree that politicians are being too timid in investigating the history of institutional sex abuse against children and be against the leader of the majority party being ousted by an unelected tech billionaire.