John Swinney may close his accounts on the social media platform X after accusing its owner Elon Musk of “stirring up tension and animosity”.
The First Minister took aim at the billionaire who delivered a message to the Unite the Kingdom march in London last weekend urging the British to “fight back or die”.
Speaking by a videolink, via the demonstration’s leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), the South Africa-born owner of electric car company Tesla, told the crowd that “violence is coming”.
He called for a “dissolution of parliament” and a “change of government”. He added: ” “My appeal is to British common sense, which is to look carefully around you and say: ‘If this continues, what world will you be living in?’”
Mr Swinney said that in view of these comments he was considering whether to close his X personal ajnd official accounts which together have 350,000 followers.
He told a radio interviewer that political debate was being “stirred up by people like Elon Musk and some of the characters that were attacking police officers and attacking members of the public on the streets of London during the weekend”.
He added that Mr Musk was “a malign influence” and that he was “certainly giving thought” over his continued use of X, which Mr Musk bought in 2022.
Swinney added: “I think we have got to take a stand on the behaviour of some of these individuals. I have been around long enough to know and to have seen examples in the past where far-right thuggery makes its presence felt on the streets of the United Kingdom.
“I saw it when I was a teenager. I didn’t like it. I loathed it when I saw it when I was a teenager and I loathe it now as first minister of Scotland. There were people at that march who were attacking police officers, so that’s far-right thuggery in my book.”
While highlighting the weekend attacks on police, only 24 people were arrested and 26 police officers injured, including four who were seriously hurt. Unite the UK supporters have pointed out that there were 423 arrests at the Notting Hill Carnival and 890 at demonstrations by Palestine Action but these have not been condemned by politicians.
Pressed over whether he or the Scottish government could leave X, Mr Swinney said: “I have thought about these issues before and in light of the different events that have taken their course, and particularly the intervention of Elon Musk, I am thinking about it again.”
He acknowledged that the government had “obviously got to look at ways to communicate our message” and warned that it would be a mistake to leave Elon Musk to dominate the political arena.
“What people need to understand from their first minister is I will have nothing to do with the type of prejudice that has been put around by Elon Musk, Nigel Farage and others.
“What I will do is give the leadership to make sure that Scotland is a welcoming country, that we welcome people to come here to seek refuge and we do all that we can to improve the lives and the livelihoods of people in our country.”
He said: “My politics are about bringing people together”, but he was not pressed on his party’s mission to split the UK, dividing Scotland from England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which some say is a contributing factor in the fractious nature of contemporary politics.
Mr Swinney’s remarks on Musk come months after his predecessor Humza Yousaf was drawn into a public spat with the X owner.
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