Ex-Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns actually wants Elon Musk to be prime minister

Tesla founder Elon Musk’s management of Twitter/X since buying the social media platform in October 2022 continues to attract controversy (with the many technical issues and restoration of previously suspended alt-right and far-right accounts), and now, as users on the site call for people to ‘Block Musk’ in protest, ex-Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns believes he could do a good job of managing the UK as prime minister.

Yes, really.

Jenkyns, of ‘sticking her middle finger up at people outside Downing Street’ infamy, floated the idea of the billionaire running the UK government on Tuesday night, as the ‘Block Musk’ hashtag trended on the platform and people raised concerns about the spread of misinformation and hard-right ideology on the social media network.

The former Leeds MP, who lost her seat in July’s general election, wrote: “Don’t #BlockMusk. Make @elonmusk British Prime Minister. He would sort our great country out for the better! And stop #TwoTierKeir #Musk4PM.”

‘Two Tier Keir’ relates to the concept of ‘two-tier policing’ pushed by the right and far-right – the claim that the far-right riots seen across England earlier this month were policed more heavily than protests.

Our actual prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has branded the accusations a “non-issue”; the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, said it’s “complete nonsense”; and the CEO of the UK’s leading racial justice think tank, the Runneymede Trust, said the traction the phrase has gained is “another example of mainstream media complicit in racist gaslighting”.

Dr Shabna Begum told The Independent: “It implies that there was an equivalent level of violence at largely peaceful BLM [Black Lives Matter] protests, and that the BLM protests were softly policed - neither are true.

“The idea that policing has ever favoured communities of colour is a direct insult, given everything we know about the disproportionality of the use of force against them.”

When one Twitter/X account suggested Jenkyns was “p****d” and had been drinking, the former Conservative politician responded to say she doesn’t drink and is in fact “like this naturally”.

Rather predictably, other users adopted a familiar, rude gesture to let the ex-MP know what they thought of her proposal:

Others, meanwhile, expressed concern that Jenkyns was formerly part of the government herself:

Musk has not responded to Jenkyns - probably because he was gearing up for his interview with Donald Trump using Twitter’s ‘Spaces’ feature hours later.

During their conversation, Musk suggested the Republican presidential candidate should set up a “government efficiency commission” to tackle government spending in a potential second term - with which he would “happy to help out”.

In response, Trump said “I’d love it”, so it seems Musk is more interested in working with the US government - in the event of the convicted felon returning to the White House – than having any involvement with the role of prime minister.

He’d much rather have a spat with Starmer on Twitter/X over the PM’s handling of the far-right riots instead.

Sorry, Andrea.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.