Elon Musk and His Megaphone, X, Rattle British Politics

When Elon Musk asked his 211 million followers on X to vote on whether “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government,” it seemed as if the post could only be tongue-in-cheek.

But coming after a barrage of strident posts about Britain by Mr. Musk — assailing the Labour prime minister, Keir Starmer; demanding the release of a jailed far-right agitator; and breaking with a hard-right leader, Nigel Farage — it came off less as a joke than a flex by a powerful man relishing his ability to roil the politics of another country.

Mr. Musk’s posts, which popped up on X throughout the holiday like unwelcome guests at a Christmas party, have thoroughly hijacked the political debate in Britain at the start of 2025.

On Monday, Mr. Starmer used a news conference about fixing Britain’s National Health Service to deny Mr. Musk’s allegations that he had not acted when he was Britain’s chief prosecutor more than a decade ago against gangs that sexually abused girls.

Mr. Farage, for his part, faced questions about his future as the leader of the right-wing anti-immigration party Reform U.K. after Mr. Musk declared on X on Sunday that “Farage doesn’t have what it takes.” A day later, Mr. Farage posted a call for a national inquiry into the cases of child sexual abuse, picking up on one of Mr. Musk’s favorite causes.

“Musk has a very distorted understanding of British politics, and yet he’s got a megaphone,” said Robert Ford, a professor of politics at the University of Manchester. “When he says this stuff at 3 a.m. on a Sunday night, it disrupts Labour’s whole N.H.S. press conference on Monday.”