Individual departments must decide whether to stay on X, says Downing Street

Downing Street indicated it would continue to use X despite the Culture Secretary’s decision to take her department off the platform.

Lisa Nandy announced she and the Department for Culture, Media and Spot (DCMS) would leave the Elon Musk-owned platform on Thursday, saying it “favours abuse and misinformation”.

Asked about her decision on Friday, a spokeswoman for No10 said it was up to individual ministers and their departments whether they continued to use the platform.

The spokeswoman said No 10 kept its use of social media “under review”, but gave no indication the Prime Minister would be following Ms Nandy in leaving X.

She added: “It is for individual departments to decide what is right for them in this regard.

“Our full focus remains on making sure X is following the law, cleaning up its act and ensuring it is safe for women, girls, children and people right across the country.”

Ms Nandy is the second senior minister to take her department off X, following attorney general Lord Richard Hermer.

Announcing her decision, she said the platform, “isn’t healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don’t want to support it”.

Defending his own decision to leave X last month, Lord Hermer told MPs that X, “constantly descends into racism and misogyny” and his department “can do better”.

But he also acknowledged that there were “very good reasons why some departments and some colleagues will want to be out there challenging things on that platform”.

Sir Keir Starmer has previously accused Mr Musk – the world’s first trillionaire – of trying to “whip up division” in the UK over the murder of student Henry Nowak last month.

Violent protests erupted near where the 18-year-old was killed amid an outcry over his treatment by police.

The following week, racist rioting took place in Belfast after a stabbing attack for which a 30-year-old Sudanese national was charged with attempted murder.

Online posts from people including Mr Musk and far-right activist Tommy Robinson had highlighted demands for people to take to the streets.