How would the government block Elon Musk from donating to Reform?

There have been growing rumours that Elon Musk is considering donating tens of millions of dollars to Reform UK. It comes after party leader Nigel Farage met with the tech billionaire at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion, alongside Reform’s new party treasurer Nick Candy.

Asked earlier this month about the reports by ITV of a $100m (£80m) donation, which would be by far the largest contribution in British electoral history, Mr Musk denied it, but his response did not rule out another amount.

The government has said it is committed to reforming the electoral system to protect it from interference, but question marks hang over what that would actually look like.

Political parties in the UK are restricted as to who they can accept donations from. Individuals who want to donate have to be on the UK electoral register, meaning they have to be a British citizen, or an Irish, EU or qualifying Commonwealth citizen living in the UK. British businesses can also donate.

The laws were originally introduced in 2000, partly in response to concerns that foreign sources could donate to political parties in the UK.

While on the face of it, this would suggest Mr Musk is already barred from donating, that’s not strictly true. Mr Musk, who has been a vocal critic of the Labour government, could donate through the UK subsidiaries of his companies, which made about £90m in profits over the past two years.

The government has been urged to intervene to prevent Mr Musk from donating to the fledgling party, with the Electoral Commission calling for the government to strengthen the rules around political donations to protect the system from foreign interference.

Vijay Rangarajan, chief executive of the elections watchdog, said linking donations to the UK profits of companies owned by foreigners was needed to retain the trust of voters – a move which could cap the amount that Mr Musk could donate through the British arm of his social media company X.

According to The Guardian, this is one of the possible measures being considered by the government. But they could also look to ban donations in their entirety by companies that are controlled by a foreign owner.

Commons leader Lucy Powell suggested on Sunday that the government can’t rule out legislation to make sure the electoral system is protected from “many of the new issues that face undermining our democracy” but indicated they were not planning to do so urgently.

Asked whether the government plans to block the donation, Ms Powell told Sky News the government has “no immediate plans” to do so, but added it is already planning to introduce reforms to the electoral system later in this parliament – something the party promised to do in its manifesto.

She suggested these changes wouldn’t take place until the next parliamentary session, beginning in the second half of next year when the government introduces its election bill which will also look at the voting age and other issues of electoral integrity.

The lack of urgency may come as a result of fears that blocking the donation could do more harm than good, playing into Mr Farage’s hands and handing him a platform to claim his party is being sabotaged by the establishment.

Wrapping the legislation into the elections bill, which was a manifesto commitment, makes it look less like a specific response to Reform, and could dampen the impact of the party’s attack lines.