Thousands of police braced for day of riots as Musk fans flames with Starmer tirade

Billionaire social media platform owner Elon Musk has launched a tirade against Sir Keir Starmer amid fears that Britain is on the cusp of descending further into civil unrest.

- DAVID MADDOX

It came as a standing army of 6,000 police officers was preparing for a new wave of violence at 39 demonstrations planned around the UK.

There was fury that Mr Musk used far-right messages and images to attack Sir Keir personally as he appeared to fan the flames of discontent. But when questioned on the X owner’s comments, he repeatedly refused to even acknowledge Mr Musk by name.

The apparently unprovoked attack on the prime minister and the UK government from across the Atlantic came as:

• Two emergency meetings were called by Sir Keir, first with his cabinet and then the emergency committee Cobra to prepare for more violence

• Fears offices of legal firms that help asylum seekers and asylum centres will be targeted in 39 protests planned for today

• A warning the violence is set to spread to new parts of the country, with concerns flagged up by Scottish secretary Ian Murray

• Residents and businesses board up homes and offices in target areas

• 1,000 writers, actors and musicians call for an end to racism, condemning violence

• The address of an 88-year-old grandmother was wrongly included on a far-right target list

• Security advice has been handed out to MPs over fears they could be targeted

With Britain braced for further violence, there were also calls for a travel ban to be imposed on Mr Musk over fears that his tirade of tweets being posted on his own social media website could fan the flames of riots. Mr Musk, who has 193 million followers on X and is donating millions to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, suggested on Monday that “civil war is inevitable” in the UK – comments which were criticised by Downing Street.