The government’s decision not to invite Mr Musk to the investment summit suggests that it thinks the potential investment is not worth the reputational risk and opens up uncomfortable questions about the background of other investors it has actively encouraged.
Attracting international investment routinely involves charm offensives with investors or nations with questionable human rights records.
The government has actively pursued trade links in the Gulf. Sir Keir, for example, publicly boycotted the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as leader of the opposition, but now he and his team routinely visit these nations to drum up trade and investment.
A number of top sovereign wealth fund executives are expected at the summit next month.
Privately, insiders suggested that Mr Musk’s presence at such a summit would be unthinkable given his comments about the UK last month.
Coming two weeks head of the Budget, the government is billing it as a huge opportunity to attract foreign investment to grow the UK economy. The Labour Party committed before the general election to hold this event within its first 100 days in office.
Under the Conservatives, Mr Musk, who owns or runs X, Tesla and SpaceX, was quietly shown around various UK sites with potential for a gigafactory for cars and batteries.
He has previously told journalists he opened a site in Germany and not the UK partly because of Brexit.
He is a regular at the equivalent French summit. In July, he attended a three-hour lunch with top executives with President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the Paris Olympics earlier this summer.
Under his ownership of the site formerly known as Twitter, Mr Musk lifted the ban on far-right figures, including on the Britain First group.
The UK is considering a tougher Online Safety Act, after the role of misinformation in the widespread racist disorder in August.