LONDON: Elon Musk on Sunday appeared to do a U-turn on his support for Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s anti-immigration Reform UK party, after the former Brexit figurehead publicly disagreed with the US tech billionaire.

“The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” Musk said on his X platform, in the latest in a series of critical comments about UK politics.

Farage said recently he was in talks with Musk over a potential big donation for his party, which helped Labour into power in July’s general election by splitting the right-wing vote.

But in a post on X on Thursday, Musk expressed support for jailed British extremist agitator Tommy Robinson, sparking a disagreement with Farage. Robinson was imprisoned in October after he admitted committing contempt of court over a long-running libel case involving a Syrian refugee.

In one of his X posts Musk asked why Tommy Robinson was “in solitary confinement prison for telling the truth?” He alleged that it was “for telling the truth” over a major grooming scandal that rocked Britain over recent years.

The affair saw groups of men, mostly of South Asian origin, convicted of the sexual abuse of vulnerable, mostly white girls in a string of UK cities. Musk said Robinson “should be freed and those who covered up this travesty should take his place in that cell”.

Weighing in on the row, Farage said that Musk saw Robinson “as one of these people that fought against the grooming gangs”.

“But of course the truth is Tommy Robinson’s in prison not for that, but for contempt of court,” Farage said. Farage said Robinson himself had encouraged a narrative that he was a “political prisoner… but it isn’t quite true”. Farage added that Musk was “very supportive” of him and his party.

Ex-football hooligan

Hitting back at Musk’s latest message on Sunday, Farage said on X that he continued to disagree with the US businessman over his views on Robinson.

“Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this, I am afraid I disagree,” Farage wrote. “My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles,” he added.

Robinson, a one-time football hooligan with a string of UK criminal convictions, is serving an 18-month jail term for repeated contempt of court breaches. He has amassed a big online following after years spearheading an anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant movement.

The grooming scandal involving the widespread abuse of girls, which emerged more than a decade ago in a number of English towns and cities, has long stirred controversy. A series of court cases eventually led to the conviction of dozens of men.

Subsequent official reports into how police and social workers failed to halt the abuse in some cases found that officials turned a blind eye to avoid appearing racist. The abuse scandals have been seized upon by far-right figures, in particular Robinson.

In his flurry of tweets last week, Musk also criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer and child welfare minister Jess Phillips over what he called “rape gangs”.

Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2025