Elon Musk is wrong about free speech, a Cabinet minister has said.

       Peter Kyle, the Science Secretary, said he took a “very different view” from the billionaire and claimed freedom of speech should not extend to “the right or the opportunity to harm others”.

       Mr Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist” and reinstated thousands of previously banned accounts on X, formerly Twitter, immediately after he bought the social network.

       The 53-year-old, who is also the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, came under fire over the summer after critics blamed X for the spread of disinformation during the summer riots.

       In an interview with the House magazine, Mr Kyle said: “I take a very different view on free speech than Elon Musk does.

       “Not that free speech isn’t important, because my God it is. These are the things that you die in a ditch over when it comes to upholding democracy.

       “But free speech doesn’t mean having the right or the opportunity to harm others. I think that’s where the conversation needs to be, not just with Elon Musk, but with many others.”

       Mr Kyle also denied he had snubbed Mr Musk after the entrepreneur was not invited to this month’s International Investment Summit following his claims about the Southport riots.

       The X owner responded to not being invited to the event by saying that no one should visit Britain because it releases paedophiles from prison.

       Insisting that he was “in awe” of Mr Musk’s technological achievements, Mr Kyle said: “I have not ignored him.

       “But I don’t wake up in the morning thinking, ‘today is the day I’m going to speak to Elon Musk’.”

       After the fatal stabbings of three young girls at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in Southport, Mr Musk posted on X to predict civil war and repeatedly attack Sir Keir Starmer.

       Calling the Prime Minister “two-tier Keir”, he described prison sentences given to two people, one of whom stirred up racial hatred online, as “messed up”.

       He also spread conspiracy theories and misinformation, including a fake Telegraph article claiming the UK was building camps on the Falkland Islands to detain rioters.

       He subsequently removed the piece after around half an hour.

       When Sir Keir said he “will not tolerate attacks on mosques or Muslim communities”, Mr Musk replied: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on all communities?”

       A number of Labour MPs have either left or reduced their use of X in recent months, with Jo Platt and Chris Curtis among the backbenchers who have quit the platform.

       ‘The Ferrari of reform’

       Mr Kyle also revealed he first reached out to Lord Vallance, now a Labour minister, while in opposition to “sense check a whole bunch of things” with the then chief scientific adviser.

       He said a first meeting soon led to regular talks, eventually leading to “a very organic conversation about how it was so obvious that we saw eye-to-eye on what a potential programme of government could be”.

       Mr Kyle added that the “obvious conclusion” the two men reached was that Lord Vallance would join a Labour Government.

       On his ambitions for Britain’s use of artificial intelligence (AI), he said he wanted to “create an engine of reform that will be the Ferrari of reform” for Sir Keir Starmer to drive.

       “My job is simply to get through each day, week and month, making as few mistakes as I possibly can, so the Ferrari doesn’t go off the track and end up in a ditch.”

       But he refused to be drawn on any potential changes to the Online Safety Act, claiming it was likely to be another 18 months before full guidance is issued by Ofcom, the regulator.