John Swinney has claimed Elon Musk is a ‘malign influence’ on British politics as he revealed he is reviewing his and his Government’s use of the billionaire’s social media site X. The First Minister condemned Mr Musk following his controversial speech to the Unite the Kingdom rally in London , when he told protesters that ‘violence is coming to you’ and ‘you either fight back or you die’.

Mr Swinney condemned his video link address to the protest, where 25 people were arrested and 26 police officers were injured, with four seriously hurt, and accused him of “stirring up tension and animosity in our society”. He claimed 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’.

Mr Swinney condemned that behavior as “far-right thuggery”, and confirmed he is ‘certainly giving thought’ over the use of X – the social media platform formerly known as Twitter which was bought by Mr Musk in 2022. Asked during an interview on BBC Good Morning Scotland if Mr Musk was a ‘malign influence’ on UK politics, Mr Swinney said: ‘I think that’s a fair summary. I think he is a malign influence. I think he is in a whole series of baseless ways stirring up tension and animosity within our society, and I think it is reprehensible what he is doing.

‘And I think we’ve got to recognise as a country what is happening to our discourse – it is 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 on the weekend.’ Asked if the Scottish Government is going to review its use of X, he said: ‘I am certainly giving thought to that, because I think we’ve got to take a stand on the behaviors of some of these individuals.’

‘I’ve been about long enough 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 as 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.’

On whether he’d consider the Scottish Government’s use of X and his own, he said he had ‘thought about these issues before’ and in light of different events like the intervention of Elon Musk ‘I’m thinking about it again’. ‘We’ve obviously got to look at ways to communicate our message,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to just leave the field barren for people like Elon Musk to dominate the communication with individuals across our country.

‘I’ve got to think about how we get our message across, so it’s not a simple argument to consider.’ ‘But what people need to understand from their First Minister is that I will have nothing to do with the type of prejudice that is being 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.’ Mr Swinney also raised concerns that the ‘chaos’ engulfing the UK Government over the departure of Lord Mandelson could damage the prospect of a better deal for the Scotch whisky industry on US tariffs.

Asked if he thought there were any political issues surrounding the sacking of the peer and the impact on trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump, Mr Swinney said: ‘I think that’s a very real risk. ‘The UK Government is completely distracted. It’s been distracted for weeks and it’s been distracted by its own internal failings, mistakes and errors.

‘The people of Scotland who voted for this Labour Government last summer voted for them to deliver better outcomes for the people of Scotland, and what they’re delivering just now is chaos, and they are distracted from the purpose of improving the lives of the people in our country.’