Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer has spent the opening weeks of 2026 doing the same thing he did a year ago: engaging in a war of words with Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person.
This time, Starmer’s more muscular approach in relation to Musk over the issue of deepfake nudes on his tech platforms risks a wider political schism between Britain’s government and the populist political movement around US president Donald Trump.
Rather than backing off, however, the UK prime minister has, uncharacteristically, thrown caution to the wind. Starmer has hinted at a possible ban for Musk’s X platform for allowing users to deploy its AI tool, Grok, to create fake images of people undressed.
“If X cannot control Grok, we will,” said Starmer, seeming to revel in the conflict.
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X has also been widely criticised over users asking Grok to produce sexualised images of children, although X said it will remove illegal material and co-operate with police.
Starmer’s latest interventions, however, have also provoked a furious response from Musk, who is firmly back in Trump’s Maga fold after a period out in the cold. Now, the US president’s political allies have begun to wade in with criticism of Britain.
Sarah B Rogers, an under secretary in the US state department and a Maga ally of Trump’s, was interviewed on GB News late on Monday. She warned the US government could respond if Britain targets X.
“I would say from America’s perspective, nothing is off the table when it comes to free speech,” she said.
While Musk resorts to retweeting fake shots of the UK prime minister in a bikini, there is also a domestic political imperative for Starmer. Labour backbenchers have been among the most vociferous critics of Musk for Grok’s deepfake excesses. The prime minister is starved of popularity within his own party ranks.
Taking on Musk is an opportunity for Starmer to curry favour with his backbenchers as he enters a crucial year that could define his premiership, or end it if they lose faith in him after May’s Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections, and local votes in England.
His crusade against the billionaire, however, could backfire if Musk calls Trump for help.
Starmer’s bold approach now is in stark contrast to a year ago, when he largely stayed above the fray while Musk attacked him on X. That was over the prime minister’s failure – in Musk’s eyes – to take action on the issue of mostly Muslim so-called grooming gangs that had organised the rape of vulnerable young white girls, in particular in the north of England.
Musk kept hammering Starmer last January until, it appears, someone in Washington asked him to back off. At the time, the UK prime minister was arranging a trip to DC to meet the newly-inaugurated Trump, who would be invited by King Charles to Britain.
Musk stopped his attacks while Trump engaged in diplomacy with Starmer. The X owner was out of the US president’s favour months later. Now, he is back in.
A British ban on X over Grok’s lurid deepfakes seems unlikely, but it is not impossible.
Under pressure from Labour backbenchers and others, Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator that also oversees online safety, has opened an investigation into X over “concerning reports of sexualised images of Children”.
Ofcom has the power to fine Musk’s company up to £18 million (€20.8 million). If it refused to pay, Ofcom could go to court for an order requiring internet service providers to block X.
Musk wasn’t happy. He has repeatedly tweeted over recent days that Britain is a “fascist” country.
“Censorship is the hallmark of an actually fascist state,” said the X owner.
“Real fascism is arresting thousands of people for social media posts . . . Why is the UK government so fascist?”
He also mocked Starmer by retweeting other users who had posted the now-infamous picture of the US-deposed Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, handcuffed and blindfolded. The user asked for the same to be done to the UK prime minister. Musk tweeted a laughing emoji.
The geopolitical risk for Starmer, however, is considerable. Musk is angry about the UK’s recently-passed Online Safety Act (OSA), which gave Ofcom its supervisory powers over digital behemoths for safety.
Concern about the OSA has been expressed by many close allies of Trump’s, an indication that the US president may be complaining about it himself in private over its potential to rein in speech on US-owned internet companies.
Last summer, US congressman Jim Jordan, a close associate of Trump’s, complained about the OSA in a meeting with the UK’s science secretary, Peter Kyle.
Now the OSA has been deployed by Britain to take on Musk’s X platform. Then, this week, Rogers of the US state department issued her warning to the British.
Trump is notorious for falling out with almost everyone in the end. That is the treacherous backdrop to Starmer’s tangles with Musk.
