Nick Clegg backs Lib Dem chief Davey’s hardline language on Elon Musk

Former deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg has backed Sir Ed Davey, his successor as Lib Dem leader, in his robust attacks on Elon Musk.

The tech boss’ remarks at a rally in London last weekend were “getting quite close to fomenting violence” and were an “outrageous intrusion into our sovereignty”, Sir Nick said at the Liberal Democrats’ annual conference in Bournemouth.

Sir Ed had earlier branded Mr Musk a criminal, and called for Parliament to haul in the billionaire to answer for his “fight back” or “die” comments at the Unite the Kingdom rally, organised by right-wing activist Tommy Robinson last weekend.

Former Lib Dem leader Sir Nick, who spent seven years working for Facebook’s parent company Meta, was speaking at a fringe event at the party’s conference when he criticised the owner of X and Tesla.

Asked by reporters whether he agreed with Sir Ed’s characterisation of Mr Musk, Sir Nick said: “How would I characterise Musk? I think everyone can use their own nouns and so on.

“But I think again, what I said earlier, you have to call out what’s going on.”

Sir Nick listed a series of American interventions in the politics of Europe, with which he disagreed.

They included US vice president JD Vance lambasting western nations for their commitment to free speech, at the Munich Security Conference.

Sir Nick added: “Musk turning up on those screens in Whitehall, I thought, getting quite close to fomenting violence, is an outrageous intrusion into our sovereignty.”

He continued: “I can understand it is difficult for (Prime Minister Sir Keir) Starmer, but when it is that egregious, when it is that outrageous, when it is such an overt attempt to interfere in our domestic political culture, I kind of want our Government to call it out.

“And I don’t care who is in power, they have to call it out, because it is our democracy. It is not Elon Musk’s.”

The former Lib Dem leader is promoting his new book How To Save The Internet, which draws on his experience of working for Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant.

He left the company earlier this year.

Asked if he would now consider making a return to frontline politics, Sir Nick replied: “No, I’m not going back into politics.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed had earlier called for an Ofcom investigation into X, the social media site owned by Mr Musk, and the businessman personally, for failing to uphold their duties under the Online Safety Act.

He also said Mr Musk should be summoned to the House of Commons to face censure by MPs.

Asked by Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips if he thought Mr Musk was a criminal, the Lib Dem leader replied: “Yes.

“Not just because of the awful things he’s done, inciting violence, for example, he says a civil war in our country is inevitable, that our democratically elected Government should be overthrown.

“They were bad enough.

“But on his platform, there are examples of adverts pushing people on self-harm, on grooming, even selling videos showing paedophile acts, child sex abuse acts. I think he should be held to account for them. Him personally and his business.”

Sir Ed is expected to continue attacking Mr Musk in his keynote speech to the conference on Tuesday.

The Lib Dems appear to be guarding themselves against potential legal challenges because of Sir Ed’s ongoing choice of words.

The party’s chief executive was said to have spent Sunday afternoon in pre-emptive legal meetings.

Elsewhere at the conference, Daisy Cooper, the party’s Treasury spokeswoman and deputy leader, called for a time-limited windfall tax on unexpected profits made by big banks.

The average of £7 billion a year raised from this levy by the end of the decade would be partly ploughed back into an “energy security bank”.

This would provide loans of up to £20,000 to homeowners make their properties more efficient and bring down their energy bills “permanently”, Ms Cooper said.