Elon Musk Urges King Charles to Dissolve Parliament—What Can UK Monarch Do?

Elon Musk has backed a suggestion that King Charles III of the United Kingdom exercise his powers and dissolve Parliament, which would usher in a new general election and a new Parliament, but critics wasted no time in lambasting the suggestion.

Why It Matters

Musk has set his sights on the United Kingdom after he successfully backed President-elect Donald Trump in the 2024 U.S. election.

In the past month, Musk—the billionaire who has been tapped by Trump to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency—has revealed that he might invest about $127 million into the fledgling right-wing Reform U.K. Party, and he has resurrected a decade-old controversy in an effort to attack British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

The controversy surrounds the 2013 Rotherham Scandal, in which authorities uncovered that about 1,400 underage girls had been groomed by groups of men in the town and trafficked for sex between 1997 and 2013. Starmer was the head of the Crown Prosecution Service at the time the allegations came to light.

Newsweek reached out to Musk through his press teams at X, SpaceX and Tesla by email on Friday morning for comment. Newsweek also contacted the British House of Commons by email for comment outside its normal business hours.

King Charles III, wearing the Imperial State Crown and the Robe of State, sits alongside Britain's Queen Camilla, wearing the George IV State Diadem, before reading the King's Speech from the The Sovereign's Throne in... Henry Nicholls - WPA Pool/Getty Images

What To Know

Musk latched onto the Rotherham Scandal as a potential cudgel against Starmer, posting dozens of times in the past week about child grooming in the U.K. and demanding an investigation into the matter. He even reposted a picture of Starmer with the words "I facilitate child rape" across it.

Musk on New Year's Day wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "In the UK, serious crimes such as rape require the Crown Prosecution Service's approval for the police to charge suspects. Who was the head of the CPS when rape gangs were allowed to exploit young girls without facing justice? Keir Starmer, 2008 -2013."

In a subsequent post, he added: "Who is the boss of Jess Phillips right now? Keir Stamer. The real reason she's refusing to investigate the rape gangs is that it would obviously lead to the blaming of Keir Stamer [head of the CPS at the time]."

Then, on Friday, Musk reposted a message that said: "The King must step in. We can't have Keir heading the country, while he was the one heading the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS] while all this was happening." Musk then replied to the post with "Yes."

Elon Musk attends the America First Policy Institute Gala held at Mar-a-Lago on November 14 in Palm Beach, Florida. President-elect Donald Trump has been announcing a number of nominees for his upcoming administration, including Musk... Joe Raedle/Getty Images

He reposted another message that asked: "Who also thinks the KING should Dissolve Parliament and order a General Election be called for the sake and security of the country? The King must ACT before it is too late!" with another brief reply: "Yes."

The move follows additional posts by Musk over the past few days calling for "new elections" in the U.K., claiming "the people of Britain do not want this government at all."

Home Office Minister Jess Philips rejected the request from Oldham Council to lead an inquiry, instead suggesting that the council itself should lead the investigation, the BBC reported.

The Conservative Party, which was kicked out of power after the rival Labour Party ousted it with a near-historic majority following the 2024 snap general election, instead took up the call for an inquiry.

Musk, seemingly frustrated at the lack of willingness from the national government to re-open the issue—following the Jay Report in 2014 and a subsequent investigation from the Independent Office for Police Conduct in 2022—instead backed the suggestion that King Charles III use his power to dissolve Parliament.

Can King Dissolve Parliament?

Many were quick to point out that the monarchy's ability to dissolve Parliament may have been fully checked by the 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which restricted the conditions of an election to the normal five-year cycle or two additional conditions.

An election can only occur outside the normal cycle if two-thirds of the House of Commons votes in favor of an election, or if the government lost a no-confidence vote and no alternative government was confirmed by the Commons within 14 days.

However, the bill's language caused much confusion and gridlock in 2019, leading Parliament to pursue an additional measure, which repealed the 2011 act and instituted the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill, which Queen Elizabeth II assented to in March 2022.

U.K. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch delivers her keynote speech at the Business Property Relief summit at the London Palladium on December 16 in London. Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Under that new act, the Sovereign regained the ability to grant a dissolution of Parliament on request of the sitting prime minister. Whether the Sovereign can do so on their own is untested but based on the text of the new law unlikely.

The play King Charles III, first staged in 2014, examined this issue and portrayed a possible future King Charles monarchy in which Charles exercises his power to dissolve Parliament amid the attempt to pass a bill that would potentially restrict the freedom of the press in the wake of a phone hacking scandal.

In the play, the move to dissolve Parliament receives widespread backlash and mass protests as the general public rebel against the monarchy for attempting to overrule the will of the people as represented by the elected government.

What Happens If Parliament Is Dissolved?

Should Parliament be dissolved, the sitting Parliament is immediately closed and the session ended since every seat is vacated. No ministers of Parliament, no Parliament.

Any business left unfinished at the time of dissolution will fall away, and any bills that have not received royal assent cannot be carried over to the new government. Were the government prorogated instead of dissolved, then unapproved bills could carry over to the new government instead, according to the Institute for Government.

An election then occurs 25 working days after dissolution, at which point the new election will form a new Parliament and government.

What People Are Saying

Sandro Gozi, an Italian politician who served in the Italian and French governments as an adviser on European Affairs, wrote on X: "Elon Musk, called a "genius" by Italy's PM Meloni, uses his platform to spread misinformation. He has recently called for King Charles III to dissolve UK Parliament. The EU must act, enforcing rules to protect democracies from foreign interference, even from the world's richest."

The Royal Household's Public Information Office told Newsweek that it: "would not comment on this matter."

What Happens Next

Musk is unlikely to disappear any time soon, especially as he has doubled down on his effort to promote Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-wing party in Germany. His support for right-wing parties will continue until either the next elections—at which point the results will indicate how much influence Musk truly has—or until the countries pass laws restricting his involvement.