Sadiq Khan has claimed that a man jailed for sending malicious messages to him and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips was ‘radicalised online’.
The London Mayor made the comments after Jack Bennett, 39, was sentenced to 28 weeks for ‘utterly deplorable’ emails to Ms Phillips and emails to him that a judge said were ‘saturated in hate’.
Bennett’s emails to Phillips attacked her for failing to hold an inquiry into ‘Pakistani men raping white English girls’ and branded her a disgrace.
He sent his comments to Phillips just a day after X owner Musk labelled her a ‘rape genocide apologist’
Sir Sadiq was also contacted by Bennett but did not receive the abusive messages due his communications being filtered.
Speaking to the rise in hateful comments directed towards politicians and the case of Bennett in particular, the Labour Mayor said that it was clear the 39-year-old had become ‘radicalised online’.
And he appeared to have the South African billionaire Elon Musk in mind when going on to criticise social media users.
‘There is a link, a direct cause and effect, between what people say on social media and criminal acts of threatening violence or violence’, he told LBC.
The London Mayor continued: ‘Yesterday there was a case in the criminal court where somebody was found guilty of malicious communication towards Jess Phillips and myself and the judge said… that this chap had been radicalised online.
‘And so we’ve got examples of people being radicalised online and it should worry the Government, and I know it does, and both (Home Secretary) Yvette Cooper and (Prime Minister Sir) Keir Starmer take this very seriously’.
During the sentencing of Bennett, the Crown Prosecution Service noted that the abusive email was sent to Ms Phillips on January 2, the day after Musk had posted to his over 200 million X followers that the safeguarding minister ‘deserves to be in prison’.
The tech mogul made the comments in the wake of widespread public calls for an inquiry into the handling of child sexual exploitation cases in Oldham.
District judge Stuart Smith said Bennett displayed ‘deep-rooted racism’ during a near-12 month period in which he targeted the pair and a third ‘prominent public figure’, Matt Twist, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
The judge said Bennett sent ‘highly offensive and disgusting anti-Semitic’ emails calling Mr Twist a ‘piece of s***’, and had ‘demonstrated racial hostility to Sadiq Khan’.
Bennett, who the court heard lived at home with his mother was sentenced after pleading guilty to sending malicious communications.
The judge also made him subject to a five-year restraining order over the ‘vulgar racist abuse’.
Last month ahead of the Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second US Presidential term, Sir Sadiq penned a piece for the Observer newspaper in which he was deeply critical of Musk.
The London Mayor singled out social media bosses for enabling the proliferation of far-right material online.
Sir Sadiq also took aim at the financial backers of politicians such as Trump, of which Musk is one.
Describing the current climate as ‘a perilous moment’ in which ‘resurgent fascism haunts the west’, Sir Sadiq called out ‘their (right-wing politicians) financial backers who selfishly choose to put the profits of their companies over the interests of our democracies’.
This article came just days after Musk reposted a tweet by a right-wing political commentator which read: ‘I never understood why people would turn down high honors and accolades.
‘Now I do… Sadiq Khan is getting a Knighthood. Liz Cheney is getting the Presidential Citizens Medal.
‘These awards are not only meaningless, they are a trophy for complicity in a rotten system’.