Make no mistake, Farage has a real Musk problem

You know that moment when your child gets home from school and you know something bad has happened? Then, it all comes out: the person your child thought was their new best mate isn’t that nice after all. And they’re worried that his other longstanding friend might side with this other person, because the two seem really tight. And you listen attentively, if slightly bewildered, to learn the spat is all the fault of that horrid kid in the class, Tommy.

Well, in this story it’s Nigel Farage who’s fallen out with the school’s Mr Flash – Elon Musk... all because Nige hasn’t shown loyalty to another kid, Tommy (Robinson, of course), who has been expelled. And Farage is worried that his longstanding best friend, Donald Trump, might take Elon’s side because they seem inseparable – always hanging around the playground together, sniggering at the back of the classroom, Elon letting Don copy his algebra homework.

If it wasn’t so consequential for British politics, it might be easy to play it for laughs.

But it does matter. Having played an outsized role in the US presidential election in November – few can doubt Musk’s significance, both in terms of financial muscle and his alleged recalibration of the X (Twitter) algorithm to promote and amplify Trump’s messages – it looks like the world’s richest man is turning to the UK for his next political playground.

For some reason, there is a small section of the right in America that gets misty-eyed about the lovable, cuddly and horribly misunderstood Tommy Robinson; mistakenly believing him to be some “free speech hero” brought down by a “woke and repressive” state – and conveniently forgetting the offences for which he has been found guilty by our impartial courts system.

He’s been given multiple custodial sentences over the years; he is currently in prison for contempt of court. He has been involved with UK far-right neo-fascist groups and has been convicted of violent and abusive behaviour. The list goes on.

And no one seems to love Robinson more than Musk. Yet at the same time, Farage is seeking to make the Reform party more mainstream. And Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (to give him his proper and inconveniently posh double-barrelled name) represents everything Farage is trying to purge.

So, before you know it, boom! – Farage is no longer fit to lead Reform, in Musk’s multi-billionaire eyes. One minute Farage is doing the best mates act at Trump’s house in West Palm Beach with Musk – and all the talk is of an imminent game-changing donation to Reform from the world’s richest man... and now Farage is persona non grata. Oh, the fickleness of the super-wealthy.

Mind you, did anyone have it on their bingo card that Musk would be endorsing the former Southampton Football Club chair, Rupert Lowe, to be the next leader of Reform? I knew Lowe when he was at Saints. His big idea was to bring the England rugby coach, Clive Woodward, to train the team. And every season Saints would just about manage to survive in the premiership... until it didn’t. He was forced out in 2006 after a massive uprising by the fans. I struggle to see him as the insurgent leader of Reform (sorry, Elon).

So, what is Musk up to? My experience of seeing him up close came in spring last year at a conference in the US that I was involved in chairing. The session with him was fascinating. He was brilliant on SpaceX and how the US could be entirely fossil fuel-free by building a 100-square mile solar panel farm in Utah. He went into detail about what would need to happen – and clearly has a phenomenal brain. But he showed signs of extreme weirdness, too.

The reason I mention this is that I am not sure how much attention to detail Musk has been paying to British politics. It sometimes feels that maybe his tweets are being written for him by some friendly right-wing agitator and disruptor.

In the midst of running his sprawling business empire – SpaceX, Tesla, X, his AI business (and sitting in on all Trump’s meetings about who should be in his cabinet and what foreign policy should be, while preparing to take charge of DOGE (the department of government efficiency) that Trump wants him to lead) – are we really to believe that he is paying close attention to the threshold at which inheritance tax is set for some British farmers? It is, after all, one of the many things he’s tweeted on.

He’s gone after Starmer with scabrous alacrity. He’s gone after Rachel Reeves – and most recently (and outrageously), the junior minister Jess Phillips, accusing her of being a “rape genocide apologist” who should be jailed.

All of this could be dismissed were it not for the fact that the next US president is seemingly now joined at the hip with Musk. Starmer has – wisely – kept his counsel and not engaged in a war of words with him.

Until now, Farage has been cheering Musk on for what he’s said about the state of British politics, assiduously courting him (and his chequebook). But now it all seems to have gone sour.

I am sure Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer would be happy to buy each other popcorn and watch this one play itself out. As make no mistake, Reform now has a Musk problem.

Farage is saying he stands by his political principles. But is that the same Nigel Farage who, when I flew to the UK on Air Force One with Barack Obama in April 2016 ahead of the EU referendum, was telling the US president to “mind his own business”?

Maybe Nigel Farage will rediscover his distaste for outsiders trying to influence our politics, after all...