16 Oct 2025
Liberal Democrat deputy leader and St Albans MP Daisy Cooper has become caught up in a social media storm after condemning Elon Musk’s financial support of far right activist Tommy Robinson.
Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, she questioned the security risk Musk poses to our democracy after Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley Lennon – claimed the tech billionaire was financially backing his court defence.
Daisy said: “On Monday the far right racist hate preacher Tommy Robinson who is currently on trial for allegedly refusing to comply with counter terror police claimed that his legal costs are being paid by Elon Musk.
“It is outrageous that a man who has so much control over what people read online every day could be funding someone who stokes far-right extremism on our streets.
“If this was Putin the Government surely would act. So will the Prime Minister commission the security services to assess the threat that Elon Musk poses to our democracy and recommend measures to this House that we can take to stop it?”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer replied to her question: “I can tell her we do look across the board at threats to our democracy and must continue to do so. I won’t comment on the particular case given the state of legal proceedings.”
Robinson launched an expletive-laden response on X, calling her “a lying, censorious, authoritarian”, who was tarnishing Musk’s reputation for funding a private legal case.
Talking to LBC’s Andrew Marr afterwards, Daisy said: “I stood up for my values, I don’t like seeing racism in our society, I don’t like seeing far-right extremists causing violence on our streets, and those are things that I wanted to speak up for…
“I’m encouraged by the messages of support that I’ve received from MPs of all political parties, from various groups that campaign against racism who have said that they felt that I said something that they considered to be brave and courageous.”
The row provoked furious comments on several St Albans Facebook groups, but the posts have since been taken down.
