US tech billionaire says Robinson, who is serving an 18-month prison sentence, “should be released”.
Elon Musk has called for the release of jailed British far-right activist Tommy Robinson, and criticised British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for his response to the grooming scandals when he served as the country’s attorney general more than a decade ago.
In a flurry of social media posts on Thursday, the US tech billionaire said Robinson, who founded the far-right English Defence League and whose real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon, “should be released”.
“Why is Tommy Robinson in solitary confinement for telling the truth?” Musk wrote on his social media platform X on Thursday.
“He should be released, and those who covered up this farce should take his place in that cell,” he wrote.
Robinson, a football hooligan with a string of criminal convictions in the UK, is serving an 18-month prison sentence after admitting contempt of court in a long-running defamation case involving a Syrian refugee.
Musk also posted several messages about the grooming scandals that took place over decades in a number of English towns and cities including Rochdale, Rotherham and Oldham until they were exposed more than a decade ago.
Musk shared the claims made by various other accounts about the scandals and criticised Starmer’s response to the scandal.
“In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the approval of the CPS so that the police can charge suspects. Who was the head of the Crown Prosecution Service when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008-2013,” he said, criticising the current UK prime minister.
Starmer was the CPS chief prosecutor at the time and began the prosecution of the Rochdale grooming gang during his final year in office, shortly after the scandal came to light. None of the investigations into the scandals have blamed Starmer or found that he tried to prevent prosecutions.
In 2012, Starmer blamed the justice system’s flawed approach to sexual exploitation and ordered a sweeping overhaul of the Crown Prosecution Service’s response to it.
Musk’s tweets about Robinson have been backed by far-right figures, including Dutch politician Geert Wilders, as well as some right-wing YouTube channels that have also called for his release.
The US tech billionaire’s latest foray into UK politics comes after his recent announcement of support for the far-right Alternative for Germany party, in which he claimed the AfD was the only party that could “save” Germany as the country heads into a snap election next month.
The German government has accused him of interfering in the vote.
Musk has also publicly backed other far-right figures in Europe, including Nigel Farage of the UK’s Reform Party and Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Musk was also a prominent fundraiser and supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign. Last month, Trump denied claims that he had “ceded the presidency” to Musk.
