X marks the flop for Elon Musk's UK operations

Elon Musk has spent much of the last couple of weeks obsessively posting in support of the UK’s far right.

He repeatedly promoted a London rally scheduled for September 13 to his 225 million followers and shared conspiracy theories about the government’s secret agenda. “The Labor [sic] Party goal is destruction of democracy by importing voters and bribing them with benefits paid for by British citizens,” he wrote.

Accounts filed at Companies House might make some question how valuable Musk’s contribution to the UK really is. A few months ago, Twitter UK Ltd (unlike the social network, the company has not been renamed) filed its accounts for 2023.

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In 2022, before his takeover, Twitter UK recorded £205m in revenue, £8.5m profit and £2.8m in tax. It employed 399 people and their total compensation package was worth more than £84m – all going into the UK economy.

After the Musk takeover, revenue fell to £69m, profit to £2.2m and tax paid to
just £1m. Musk was the opposite of a job creator, too: only 114 people worked for the company in 2023, and they only got £11m of compensation.

Musk is either much worse at running X than the previous management or else he’s decided to move its jobs and its revenues out of the UK – while involving himself endlessly in our politics. Neither suggests all that much commitment to the UK or its future.