LONDON: UK leader Keir Starmer accused US tech tycoon Elon Musk on Thursday of &quot;trying to whip up division&quot; in Britain after anger over the police handling of the murder of a student. The case of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, who was put in handcuffs by police as he lay mortally wounded after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa, 23, in the southern city of Southampton in December, has become highly politicized in the UK. Digwa lied and told the police he himself was the victim and that Nowak had racially insulted him. Far-right figures have seized on the murder as an example that police forces in Britain treat white people and ethnic minorities differently -- an allegation Starmer&#39;s Labour government and police chiefs vehemently deny. Musk, the billionaire owner of X, has posted numerous times on the platform about the police response to the stabbing. In one, he asked whether people knew that &quot;official police policy requires them to be racist against Whites?&quot; Musk has offered to fund a private prosecution against the police over its handling of the murder, and insulted the Hampshire Police force. &quot;We need to also assert who we are as a country, because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division. That is not who we are in Britain,&quot; Starmer told reporters. &quot;In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people.&nbsp;When we have a terrible case like Henry&#39;s ... we react calmly, as his family have done,&quot; the prime minister added, referring to pleas from Nowak&#39;s father that his son&#39;s murder should not be used &quot;to create further division, hatred or tension.&quot; Digwa was jailed for at least 21 years on Monday for stabbing Nowak to death using a knife with a 21-centimeter (eight-inch) blade following an altercation about a mobile phone. Starmer has said there was &quot;no justification&quot; for violence at a Southampton protest on Tuesday night attended by far-right agitators, which saw demonstrators throw bricks, flares and chairs at police officers. One person has been charged with assault, and another with violent disorder. &#39;Lies and misinformation&#39;&nbsp;The prime minister said it was &quot;unforgivable&quot; that hard-right firebrand Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party leads opinion polls, had called for people to respond to the murder with &quot;pure cold rage.&quot; Farage, who has been accused of stoking racial tensions with his remarks, has defended his comments. Starmer has called the bodycam footage of Nowak&#39;s death, during which he can repeatedly be heard telling officers he could not breathe, as &quot;harrowing.&quot; He said &quot;there are serious questions that need to be answered&quot; about the police response. The Independent Office for Police Conduct watchdog is investigating and is expected to report back within the next three months. Musk has long been an outspoken critic of Starmer, a former chief state prosecutor before entering politics. The pair clashed last year over a decades-long &quot;grooming gangs&quot; sexual abuse scandal. Then, the prime minister accused the world&#39;s richest man of &quot;spreading lies and misinformation.&quot;

British police chiefs are reviewing anti-racism guidance following outrage over the treatment of a white student, who was handcuffed as he lay dying after being stabbed by a Sikh man, officials said June 3. (Photo: AFP)

United Kingdom

Keir Starmer accuses Elon Musk of stoking divisions in Britain by interfering in political debate surrounding a controversial murder case.

UK PM says Elon Musk 'trying to whip up division' over student's murder 

LONDON: Pressure mounted on Britain&#39;s Prime Minister Keir Starmer Thursday when his former deputy Angela Rayner emerged as a potential challenger in a frenzied battle for the leadership. Starmer, who led his Labour party to victory in 2024 elections ending 14 years of Conservative rule, is fighting to save his job after disastrous local and regional polls last week. Four junior ministers have resigned and more than 80 MPs have urged him to quit but he has vowed to cling on. Although no one has so far broken ranks to formally challenge him, media reported that Health Minister Wes Streeting was preparing to resign on Thursday to run for the top job. The prospect of a challenge by Rayner also grew as she announced that UK tax authorities had &quot;cleared&quot; her of deliberate wrongdoing in a tax affair, opening the way for her to compete in a potential leadership contest. She was forced to step down in September for underpaying a property duty, but said on Thursday the UK tax authority HMRC had exonerated her of &quot;the accusation that I deliberately sought to avoid tax&quot;. Media reported she had paid off &pound;40,000 ($54,000) in outstanding tax. &quot;I welcome HMRC&#39;s conclusion, which has cleared me of any wrongdoing,&quot; she said in a statement. &quot;I set out to pay the correct amount of tax. I took reasonable care and acted in good faith, based on the expert advice I received, and HMRC has accepted this.&quot; Although Rayner suggested in interviews that she would not be the one to trigger a race, she told the Guardian newspaper she would play &quot;whatever role I can&quot; to &quot;deliver the change&quot;. &nbsp;Left-wing figurehead&nbsp;Streeting, 43, is popular on the right of Labour, but is disliked by MPs on the left who would prefer Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham as leader. Burnham is currently blocked from running as he does not have a seat in the Westminster parliament. The 46-year-old Rayner, seen as a working-class champion in the party, is a figurehead among Labour&#39;s left-wing base. She quit as deputy PM and housing, communities and local government minister after an investigation found she had breached the ministerial code over the purchase of a flat in southern England. Voters last week punished Starmer over his 22 months in power in local ballots which saw huge gains for the hard-right Reform UK party and the left-wing populist Greens at Labour&#39;s expense. The Labour Party lost control of the devolved Welsh parliament for the first time and failed to make up ground on the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) in the parliament in Edinburgh. Rayner earlier stopped short of calling for Starmer to resign, but said voters were frustrated with the way the government was being run. &quot;What we are doing isn&#39;t working, and it needs to change,&quot; she said in a 1,000 word assessment of the party&#39;s electoral woes on Sunday. Under party rules, any challenger would need the support of 81 Labour MPs -- 20 percent of the party in parliament -- to trigger a contest. Starmer has vowed to stay put and came out fighting on Monday, pledging to do better. &quot;I know I have my doubters, and I know I need to prove them wrong, and I will,&quot; he said.

Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure after poor election results, resignations and leadership rumblings, with Angela Rayner emerging as a potential challenger as divisions deepen within Britain’s Labour Party.

British PM battles to stay in power amid rebellion

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ISLAMABAD: Labour suffered heavy losses in early UK local election results on Friday, as Nigel Farage&rsquo;s Reform UK made major gains across England and Prime Minister Keir Starmer came under renewed pressure, British media reported. The Independent reported that Labour had lost control of eight councils, including traditional strongholds such as Tameside, Hartlepool and Wigan, as results from Thursday&rsquo;s elections continued to come in.&nbsp; Early tallies showed Reform winning 290 council seats, a gain of 270, while Labour had 229, down 202. The Liberal Democrats had 217 seats, up 29, the Conservatives 159, down 61, and the Greens 47, up 23.&nbsp; PM Starmer acknowledged the scale of Labour&rsquo;s setback, saying the results were &ldquo;very tough&rdquo; and that there was &ldquo;no sugarcoating it.&rdquo; He said Labour had lost dedicated councilors and added that he took responsibility. Reform&rsquo;s strongest early performances came in former Labour areas. In Hartlepool, the party won all 12 contested seats, while Labour lost seven and control of the council. Reform also took Newcastle-under-Lyme from the Conservatives, its first council gain of the 2026 local elections. BBC reported that Reform won 27 seats there, underlining the party&rsquo;s breakthrough in areas where it previously had little local representation.&nbsp; Farage described the results as evidence of &ldquo;historic change in British politics&rdquo; and said Reform was making gains in traditional Labour areas. The party also claimed Labour voters were switching directly to Reform. The results triggered fresh questions about Starmer&rsquo;s leadership. Labour MP Jonathan Brash said the prime minister should step down, while Defence Secretary John Healey rejected that call and said Starmer remained the right person to turn the party&rsquo;s position around. Polling expert Sir John Curtice, who leads the BBC&rsquo;s results analysis, said Reform was winning at least a third of declared seats and performing especially well in areas that backed Brexit. He said Reform appeared to have taken from the Conservatives the coalition that supported Boris Johnson in 2019.&nbsp; The Conservatives also lost ground, although they pointed to some gains as evidence of resilience. The Liberal Democrats and Greens both made gains, adding to signs of a more fragmented electoral landscape. More results are expected throughout Friday from councils in England, along with devolved elections in Scotland and Wales.

Reform UK made major local election gains as Labour lost key councils, increasing pressure on PM UK Sir Keir Starmer while Conservatives also struggled and smaller parties advanced.

Articles tagged with "Sir Keir Starmer"

UK PM says Elon Musk 'trying to whip up division' over student's murder

British PM battles to stay in power amid rebellion

Reform UK surges as Labour suffers heavy local election losses