By William Schomberg
LONDON (Reuters) – Elon Musk has called for Nigel Farage to step down as leader of Britain’s Reform UK party, abruptly withdrawing his support for the Brexit campaigner seeking to disrupt the British political landscape once again.
In a surprising move, the U.S. billionaire stated on his social media platform X on Sunday, “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.” This declaration came just hours after Farage had referred to Musk as a friend who brought a sense of “cool” to the Reform party.
Musk, a staunch ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, had previously shown support for Farage, even posing for a photograph with him last month. In the national election held last July, Reform garnered 4.1 million votes, representing 14% of the total, and secured five seats in parliament. Speculation had been rife in the media regarding a potential significant financial contribution from Musk to aid Reform in challenging the established dominance of the Labour and Conservative parties.
However, Farage distanced himself from Musk’s recent comments endorsing British anti-immigration and anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, who is currently serving a prison sentence for contempt of court. Responding to Musk’s statement on Sunday, Farage expressed surprise, saying, “Well, this is a surprise! 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.”
Last month, Musk endorsed the Alternative for Germany, a party known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islam stance, which has been labeled as right-wing-extremist by German security services ahead of the upcoming national elections in February. Musk has previously made efforts to influence British politics and has been openly critical of Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Notably, the Tesla founder recently called for a national inquiry into cases of rape involving men of Pakistani heritage targeting underage girls, a matter that arose during Starmer’s tenure as head of the government’s prosecution service. An inquiry in 2014 revealed that at least 1,400 children in Rotherham, northern England, had been victims of sexual exploitation between 1997 and 2013.
In response to Musk’s criticisms, UK Health Minister Wes Streeting defended Starmer and another cabinet member, Jess Phillips, who had drawn Musk’s ire for suggesting that any new inquiry should be managed by the local authority. Streeting emphasized the challenging nature of the work done by Starmer and Phillips in prosecuting offenders, stating, “It’s all very easy to sit there and fire off something in haste and click ‘send’ when people like Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips have done the hard yards of actually locking up wife beaters, rapists, and paedophiles.”
