John Swinney condemns Elon Musk over racism row with Humza Yousaf

Mr Yousaf also posted on X, external: “Elon Musk is a dangerous race baiter who must be held to account for his actions.

“I can’t think what it is that upsets him so much about a Brown, Muslim, progressive politician? But his billions won’t stop me calling out his support for the far-right.”

Mr Musk again responded online, claiming Mr Yousaf was “obviously super racist against white people”.

“I dare that scumbag to sue me,” he said. “Go ahead, make my day…”

Mr Musk added: “Legal discovery will show that however big a racist he’s been in public communications, he is vastly worse in private communications.”

This is not the first public spat between the pair.

In October last year, while Mr Yousaf was first minister, Mr Musk branded him a “blatant racist”.

The billionaire made the comment in response to an edited clip of a speech Mr Yousaf gave in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd. The clip has once again been shared widely by right-wing accounts in recent days.

A fact check by the Reuters news agency, external concluded that the clip misrepresented Mr Yousaf’s comments by suggesting he had been arguing that Scotland contained too many white people – when he had been about racial injustice and a lack of people of colour in positions of power.

Responding last year, Mr Yousaf’s spokesperson said Mr Musk should instead “tackle racism and hatred that goes unchecked on the social media platform he owns”.