The billionaire, having helped Trump regain the White House, is reportedly turning his interest to Britain
Elon Musk appears to have many obsessions. The world’s richest man is evangelical about electric vehicles, space travel and Donald Trump. Another of his interests may yet have profound consequences for the UK: British politics.
The billionaire is reported to be thinking of becoming the biggest donor in history with a rumoured £80m payment to Nigel’s Farage’s Reform UK party.
Like so many who embraced Trump’s bellicose brand of rightwing populism, Musk was radicalised by his frustration at lockdowns, according to Musk watchers.
Irritated at the way manufacturing was hit at his Tesla car plants, he started spending more time online, going on to test the boundaries of rules on misinformation laid out by Twitter, as it was then known.
Now, having helped to propel Trump into the White House, he is reportedly turning his interest to Britain.
Sources in Reform say they are unaware of Musk’s spending plans, while he has also denied it. But if the Tesla and X owner backs up his online criticism of Keir Starmer’s government with a mega-donation to Labour’s opponents, it could prove one of the most consequential political acts of this parliament.
Within two years of his October 2022 purchase of X, formerly Twitter, Musk had already become a darling of the international far right, who were grateful for his restoration of previously suspended accounts under the banner of free speech. But Musk then went further, using his own account to amplify the message of the far-right activist and convicted criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.
By the time of this year’s rioting in English cities, Musk was engaged in a full-blown onslaught against the Labour government, claiming “civil war is inevitable” and describing the prime minister as “two-tier Keir” in an echo of a position that police were treating white far-right “protesters” more harshly than minority groups.
Last weekend, however, came a suggestion that Musk could swap words for deeds in relation to Britain when the Sunday Times reported that he could be about to make a £80m donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and believed the MP would be the next UK prime minister.
Musk denied the claim on Thursday, but Reform UK had been conspicuously quiet about it, while Farage boasted last month that he was expecting to count on help from his “new friend Elon” in the next general election. A major donor to his party was even quite bullish, telling the Guardian this week: “Watch this space.”
Musk’s fortune has risen by $133bn (£104.4bn) so far this year and stands at $362bn, coming from a shareholding in Tesla of approximately 13% and his ownership of a number of companies.
The reasons behind Musk’s apparent animosity towards Starmer – and interest in the UK – may be more complicated.
The range of theories for why the UK finds itself in Musk’s crosshairs includes the notion that he has come to view Britain as the centre of what he has described as the “woke mind virus”, which he blames for the gender transition of his estranged daughter.
