Meet the British anti-Musk activists targeting his Teslas

From Bluesky radicals to slick PR professionals, Alexander Butler meets protesters trying to take down the Doge chief

- Alexander Butler

On a sunny morning in west London, a group of around 30 protesters had gathered outside a gleaming Tesla car dealership next to a busy A-road.

They were part of a Tesla Takedown UK demonstration, one of three anti-Elon Musk campaign groups that have sprung up across Britain in response to the billionaire’s repeated interventions in European politics.

The group, inspired by American counterpart Tesla Takedown, vowed to “tank Tesla’s stock” and called for a boycott of Musk’s electric vehicle company.

“People have to stop buying Tesla cars. We have reached an unbelievable point in US foreign policy and it is frightening,” said Theodora Sutcliffe, 50, while clutching a carrier bag of hand-drawn placards.

The protest was organised by 50-year-old software engineer John Gorenfeld, who became excited seeing what anti-Musk protesters were doing across the US on Twitter/X competitor Bluesky.

“We originated on Bluesky. For a while, it felt like a lot of us were stunned into not protesting Trump’s administration after he became president,” Mr Gorenfeld told The Independent.

“We were watching and waiting for someone to do something. I saw Tesla Takedown in the US and it was very exciting, so I did the same in London.”