The simmering debate over the responsibilities of tech giants erupted once again in the United Kingdom this week, as Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for Parliament to summon billionaire Elon Musk to answer for his incendiary remarks at a far-right rally in central London. The demand, issued on September 21, 2025, marks a dramatic escalation in the ongoing feud between the political leader and the owner of X (formerly Twitter) and Tesla, as concerns mount over the influence of social media platforms on UK democracy and public safety.
Sir Ed’s call comes in the wake of Musk’s appearance—via video message—at the Unite the Kingdom rally, a protest organized by far-right activist and convicted fraudster Tommy Robinson. Addressing demonstrators in London, Musk declared, “Whether you choose violence or not, violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die.” According to Press Association, these words drew immediate condemnation from Downing Street and ignited a fierce exchange between Musk and Davey online.
Sir Ed accused Musk of inciting violence, a charge the billionaire dismissed by branding the Lib Dem leader a “craven coward” in return. The spat quickly spilled onto social media, with Davey responding by sharing a meme image of SpongeBob SquarePants, mocking Musk’s retort. The back-and-forth, while laced with internet humor, underscored the serious concerns many in Westminster now harbor about the unchecked power of tech moguls and their platforms.
Amid the uproar, Sir Ed announced his party’s intention to table a motion as soon as Parliament returns, aiming to invoke a rarely used parliamentary power to summon Musk to appear before MPs. If successful, Musk would be required to stand at the threshold of the House of Commons—the so-called bar—to be publicly admonished, a spectacle not seen since 1957 when the power was last used on a non-MP. The Liberal Democrats are urging both the Government and other opposition parties to support the move, signaling a rare moment of cross-party concern over the issue.
But the calls for accountability do not end there. Sir Ed has also demanded that Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, launch a formal investigation into Musk and his social media site X for failing to comply with the Online Safety Act. He specifically cited the proliferation of harmful content on the platform, including child sexual exploitation, self-harm, and grooming. “It’s because he wants to carry on running his social media platform without taking any responsibility for the terrible harm it is causing – especially to our children,” Sir Ed is expected to say in his keynote address to the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth on September 23.
According to Press Association, Sir Ed’s critique of Musk goes beyond the question of platform moderation. In his speech, he is set to accuse the billionaire of meddling in UK democracy out of “ego, power and wealth,” and to challenge Musk’s stance on the Online Safety Act. “He rails against the Online Safety Act, but not because he cares about free speech. Like so many on the far-right – or the far-left – Elon Musk doesn’t really believe in free speech. He just believes in free speech for people who agree with him,” Davey will claim. The Lib Dem leader further criticized Reform UK’s Nigel Farage for supporting Musk’s vision of a deregulated social media landscape, arguing, “A Wild West on social media… only benefits Musk and his ilk – while children suffer.”
Former deputy prime minister and ex-Lib Dem leader Sir Nick Clegg has thrown his weight behind Davey’s campaign, adding further gravitas to the party’s position. Speaking at a conference fringe event, Clegg described Musk’s comments as “getting quite close to fomenting violence” and labeled the tech boss’s intervention as “an outrageous intrusion into our sovereignty.” Drawing on his own experience as a senior executive at Meta, Clegg emphasized the dangers of foreign tech billionaires interfering with domestic politics. “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,” he said, as reported by Press Association.
During an appearance on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Sir Ed Davey went even further, branding Musk a criminal. “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.”
The Liberal Democrats appear to be bracing for potential legal challenges in the wake of these accusations. According to Press Association, the party’s chief executive spent Sunday afternoon in pre-emptive legal meetings, a sign of the high stakes involved in confronting one of the world’s most high-profile and litigious tech figures.
For his part, Musk has long been a vocal critic of the UK’s Online Safety Act, which is designed to protect children from harmful online content but has faced criticism from some quarters for potentially stifling free speech. Musk and Farage have both argued that the legislation risks turning the internet into a heavily censored space, with Musk previously describing such regulatory efforts as antithetical to the open exchange of ideas. However, his critics—now led by the Lib Dems—counter that these arguments are a smokescreen for avoiding responsibility.
The debate over the Online Safety Act and the role of tech platforms in policing harmful content is far from new. But the high-profile clash between Davey and Musk, amplified by the involvement of former deputy prime minister Clegg, has thrust the issue back into the national spotlight. The Lib Dems’ willingness to invoke rarely used parliamentary powers signals a new level of seriousness in the UK’s approach to tech accountability, one that could set precedents for how foreign tech billionaires are treated when their actions cross perceived lines of public safety and democratic integrity.
As the Liberal Democrats prepare for their autumn conference, the party is also advancing other policy proposals, including a time-limited windfall tax on big banks to fund energy efficiency loans for homeowners—a move championed by deputy leader Daisy Cooper. But it is the showdown with Musk that is likely to dominate headlines, as Parliament is urged to “stand up to Elon Musk, and properly enforce our laws so he can’t get away with inflicting harm on our kids.”
With legal teams on standby and political tensions running high, the coming weeks could see unprecedented scrutiny of both Musk’s business practices and the UK’s willingness to hold global tech leaders to account. For now, the question remains: will Parliament seize this moment to reassert its authority, or will the world’s richest man once again evade the reach of British law?
