The Musk Factor: Is the world's richest man driving Parliament's agenda?

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The 'Musk Factor': Is the world's richest man driving Parliament's agenda? - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 66

10 Jan 2025

This week, we examine how Elon Musk’s tweets have steered the UK parliamentary agenda in the first sitting days of the New Year. From a viral petition demanding a general election, to intense debates on child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs, Musk’s influence has left its mark on this week’s key political discussions. Ruth and Mark also unpack the rise of identical parliamentary questions and share their plans to cover the Assisted Dying Bill’s next stages later this month.

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Elon Musk’s tweets are more than just clickbait - they are actively driving UK politics. Ruth and Mark explore three major Commons events this week that were all amplified by Musk’s controversial social media posts: a petition signed by three million people calling for a general election, debates on grooming gangs, and controversies surrounding the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Musk’s online influence has placed these issues at the forefront of political discourse, but his incendiary comments have also raised serious concerns about misinformation, online abuse, harassment and MP safety.

In this episode, Ruth and Mark break down the strategies and tensions behind the parliamentary debates. They highlight how political positioning on the Children’s Bill overshadowed critical discussions on education reform. Musk’s online dominance and abuse has also escalated security risks for MPs like Jess Phillips, who faces intensified threats after his vituperative personal attacks.

We unpack the politics behind the parliamentary decisions, look at the challenges of effective political communication, and preview how the issues may play out in the weeks ahead. We close with a look at the latest parliamentary trend: the orchestrated surge of identical questions by whips aiming to amplify government messaging. From project management jargon to strategic question crafting, this episode sheds light on the mechanics of Westminster.

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Transcript

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. There may consequently be minor errors and the text is not formatted according to our style guide. If you wish to reference or cite the transcript copy below, please first check against the audio version above.

Intro: [00:00:00] You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/PM.

Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox.

Mark D'Arcy: And I'm Mark D'Arcy. Coming up this week.

Ruth Fox: The Musk Factor. How tweets from the world's richest man are driving Parliament's agenda.

Mark D'Arcy: And what precisely did Parliament vote against this week, amidst calls for a national inquiry into historical child exploitation focused on grooming gangs?

Ruth Fox: And we've got questions in the House about, well, questions in the House.

Mark D'Arcy: But first Ruth, this was definitely the week in which the world's richest man drove the agenda of the House of Commons. There are at least three [00:01:00] substantial Commons events this week that basically were rocket boosted by tweets from Elon musk.

Ruth Fox: See what you did there Mark.

Mark D'Arcy: Couldn't resist it.

But it's extraordinary how the megaphone given to Elon Musk by his ownership of Twitter, which clearly amplifies his personal tweets that everybody gets them. I don't follow him, but I get his tweets anyway.

Ruth Fox: Yeah, I think we call it X now, don't we? But he's always at the top of the list.

Mark D'Arcy: I refuse to call it X.

I'm going to continue calling it Twitter because I'm a stubborn git.

Ruth Fox: Yes, I mean, no matter when you, uh, you turn on X Twitter, whatever we call it, his tweets are always at the top. The algorithm obviously favours him. But as you say, I mean, three interventions this week. So we had the ministerial statement by Yvette Cooper on child sexual exploitation and abuse.

We've had a reasoned amendment from the Conservatives to the Children and Schools Bill to try and force a national inquiry into the grooming gangs, which is at the [00:02:00] heart of the discussion over the last few days on X and in the media that Elon Musk is forcing, and we had an e petition calling for another general election signed by three million people that, again, to use your phrase, was basically put on rocket boosters before Christmas by it being posted about by Elon Musk.

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