Elon Musk says UK going ‘full Stalin’

LONDON — Elon Musk continued his feud with the British government Monday, accusing it of going “full Stalin” by increasing inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million.
It’s the latest attack by the X-owning Donald Trump ally on Britain’s center-left Labour government, and comes as London tries to smooth ties with Trump’s team before his inauguration.
Musk’s comments, on his own social media platform, center on a controversial tax plan unveiled by Labour last month. The government is scrapping an inheritance tax exemption for some farms, in a move branded “disastrous” by the National Farmers’ Union. Widespread farming protests are expected in London Tuesday.
The changes, which kick in from April 2026, will see the heirs of farms worth more than £1m hit by an inheritance tax rate of 20 percent. The British Treasury has argued fewer than 500 farms a year are likely to be affected, and point out that the levy is half that paid by others who cough up inheritance tax.
Musk, however, reached straight for the Josef Stalin comparison Monday, name-checking the 20th century Soviet dictator who ran a brutal program of farm collectivization, which was followed by widespread famine.
“Britain is going full Stalin,” he posted, as he shared a Guardian article on the U.K. plan.
It’s far from Musk’s first tangle with the British government. Over the summer, the billionaire — lined up to run a new government efficiency drive under Trump — predicted “civil war” in the country amid riots that followed the fatal stabbing of three schoolgirls in a seaside town. He was subsequently not invited to a U.K.-government organized investment summit.
Pressed on Musk’s latest broadside Monday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “I’m not going to get into a back and forth on individual comments.”