Liberal Democrat leader Sir Edward Davey called for Elon Musk’s arrest at the Party’s Autumn Conference (20-23 September 2025, Bournemouth).
This followed Musk’s appearance at Tommy Robinson’s ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally in London last week, a far-right protest in response to immigration in the UK.
It was there that Musk appeared via video link and told the protestors that “violence is coming” and “you either fight back or you die.” He also called for the “dissolution of parliament.”
Members of the police force were injured in the violence that erupted at the protest.
The statements were labelled as “inciting violence” by Sir Ed, and condemned by others, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
Despite Sir Ed’s conviction, it has been determined by Jonathan Hall KC (the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation) that Musk did not break the law with these comments.
“Metaphors such as fights and struggles are pretty normal. And he was talking about it contingently, wasn’t he?” he said to BBC Radio 4.
Sir Ed continued and said that Musk’s appearance at the rally was “bad enough,” but that Musk should be held accountable under the Online Safety Act because he had “taken away the child safety team” at X.
He continued: “Ofcom should go after him. The laws are there. What his business is doing is against the law because it is disgusting.”
Sir Ed and Musk were also arguing on X, wherein Musk branded Sir Ed a “craven coward” for his statements.
One student said that “people with that much power should have responsibility over what they say to a volatile group.”
She continued: “it’s very clear to see whose language is policed.”
Approached by The Student for comment, Edinburgh’s Liberal Democrat Society did not respond.
“ed davey speech 02” by Liberal Democrats is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.