Elon Musk
turns on Nigel Farage and calls for new leader of Reform
It’s unclear
what prompted Musk to post message on X saying Farage ‘doesn’t have what it
takes’ to be Reform UK’s leader
Peter Walker
Senior political correspondent
Sun 5 Jan
2025 15.26 GMT
Elon Musk
has said Nigel Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” to be Reform UK’s leader,
hours after Farage refused to condemn the billionaire businessman for his
inflammatory comments about Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips.
In a
surprise intervention, less than three weeks after Musk met Farage at Donald
Trump’s Florida home amid reports he could donate $100m (£80m) to Reform, Musk
used X, the social media platform he owns, to say: “The Reform party needs a
new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
It was not
clear what prompted Musk, who has tweeted numerous times recently about UK
politics, to change his mind about the Reform leader.
But Farage
indicated it could have been due to disagreement about Tommy Robinson, the
jailed far-right anti-Islam agitator whom Musk has characterised as a political
prisoner, but whom Farage condemns.
“Well, this
is a surprise!” Farage wrote on X after Musk’s tweet. “Elon is a remarkable
individual but on this I am afraid I disagree. My view remains that Tommy
Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.”
Speaking
earlier, Farage said Musk, who has called Phillips a “rape genocide apologist”
and said Starmer was “complicit in the rape of Britain”, had brought back free
speech on social media since buying Twitter, which he renamed X.
“I don’t
agree with everything he stands for,” Farage told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura
Kuenssberg. “But I do believe in free speech. I think he’s a hero.”
He added:
“Free speech is back. Well, you may find it offensive, but it’s a good thing,
not a bad thing.”
Speaking
later to the BBC, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, condemned Musk’s
comments about Phillips, among a mass of messages on the subject of grooming
gangs Musk has sent to his 210 million X followers in recent days.
“It is a
disgraceful smear of a great woman who has spent her life supporting victims of
the kind of violence that Elon Musk and others say that they’re against,” he
said.
Streeting
condemned what he called “armchair critics on social media”, contrasting them
with people such as Starmer and Phillips, who “have done the hard yards of
actually locking up wife beaters, rapists, paedophiles”.
Asked about
Musk, Streeting said: “If he wants to roll his sleeves up and actually do
something about tackling violence against women and girls, then online
platforms, whether X or any of the other platforms, have got a role to play in
keeping people safe online, helping law enforcement clamp down on perpetrators
of violence against women and girls, and people who want to groom kids online.”
Farage,
speaking after he addressed supporters at Reform’s east of England conference
in Chelmsford on Saturday, described Musk’s language as “very, very tough
terms”, but indicated it would only be seen as unacceptable if it was deemed to
be inciting violence.
“You know,
in public life, tough things get said,” he said. “Those on the left have thrown
these sort of jabs at the right for many, many decades and will go on doing
so.”
Farage said
he believed Musk had justification in calling Starmer complicit in the failures
to swiftly prosecute gangs who targeted vulnerable young girls in a series of
UK towns and cities because of the prime minister’s role as director of public
prosecutions before he became a politician.
“What he’s
referring to, specifically, is that in 2008 Keir Starmer had just been
appointed as director of public prosecutions, and there was a case brought
before them of alleged mass rape of young girls that did not lead to a
prosecution.
“I don’t
know the rights and wrongs of that any more than you do, but if you believe in
free speech, people are allowed to have an opinion.”
Farage
denied his disinclination to criticise Musk was connected to reports that Musk
could donate as much as $100m to Reform. While saying Musk “may well” donate,
Farage dismissed the idea of a $100m gift.
Being
dropped by Musk might not be entirely without political benefit for Farage,
however embarrassing.
Polling
shows Musk is personally unpopular with many UK voters, and a number of the
issues he is commenting on, for example support for Robinson and the idea that
the king should dissolve parliament and call an election, were not prominent
beyond limited social media bubbles.
Musk’s
interest in sexual exploitation in the UK follows reports that Phillips told
Oldham council that it would be better for it to hold its own inquiry into
local failure, rather than commissioning a national version.
Streeting
defended this decision, telling Sky News there had already been a national
inquiry on the subject, headed by the child welfare expert Alexis Jay. He said:
“What I think not just historic victims, but victims today, tomorrow, next
week, deserve is the full implementation of the Alexis Jay recommendations. Our
predecessors didn’t implement one of them.”
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