Yousaf accuses Musk of trying to ‘inflame racial tensions’ following recent post

Former first minister Humza Yousaf has accused Elon Musk of seeking to “inflame racial tensions” with a reference to the infamous murder of Kriss Donald in 2004.

The Glasgow schoolboy, aged 15 at the time, was abducted and killed in a racist attack by an Asian gang led by Imran Shahid on March 15 2004.

Posting on his social media platform X, the world’s richest man quoted a post from an activist which discussed the murder, saying “first time I’ve heard of this”.

The billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX, who has a key role in the incoming Trump administration, has made a number of remarks on UK politics in recent days.

This has included attacking the Prime Minister as “two tier Keir” who delivers “no justice for severe, violent crimes, but prison for social media posts”.

Mr Musk has clashed with Mr Yousaf online previously, attacking the Hate Crime Act which the SNP politician introduced.

In response to Mr Musk’s post on Tuesday, the former first minister highlighted the role of the UK’s first Muslim MP Mohammad Sarwar in bringing Kriss’s killers to justice.

Mr Sarwar, who is the father of current Scottish labour leader Anas Sarwar, travelled to Pakistan to ensure the killers were extradited to the UK after they fled there. Mr Yousaf spoke about the case further on LBC’s Tonight With Andrew Marr show.

Mr Yousaf said: “Typical of Elon Musk to suddenly amplify that case because he, of course, is only interested in highlighting cases that involve, it tends to be migrants, people of colour, or indeed Muslims.

The Kriss Donald murder was a dreadful murder where a young, innocent white male inside Glasgow, in the Pollokshields area, was kidnapped, tortured, killed, murdered in one of the most brutal ways by a gang of Scottish Asian youth.”

He continued: “And (the killers) almost evaded justice. If it wasn’t, in fairness, for the efforts of Mohammad Sawar MP, the first Muslim MP ever to be elected to the House of Commons, who went over to Pakistan, rattled a lot of cages to his credit, and managed to bring the perpetrators back to Scotland to face the full force of the law.

And I should say on the Kriss Donald murder, it was in fact Kriss Donald’s mother Angela, who made a plea at the time that her son’s murder not be used to inflame racial tensions. That is exactly what Elon Musk is trying to do.”

As well as being Labour MP for Glasgow Central until 2010, Mohammed Sarwar later served twice as the governor of Punjab province in Pakistan.

The Tesla owner branded Mr Yousaf “super racist” during one of their online arguments last year, daring the former first minister to sue him.