How should Westminster handle Elon Musk?

Elon Musk arrives at the 10th Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony

Musk has attacked Keir Starmer for his record on grooming gangs and said safeguarding minister Jess Phillips 'deserves to be in prison'

(Image credit: Image Press Agency / NurPhoto / Shutterstock)

By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK

published 6 January 2025

Elon Musk has called for Nigel Farage to be replaced as leader of Reform UK, just weeks after the tech billionaire was reportedly in talks to donate a substantial amount to the party.

In a post on X, Musk said Farage "doesn't have what it takes" to lead the party. The surprising souring of relations came just hours after Farage described Musk as a "friend" and called him a "hero" of free speech in an interview with the BBC.

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What did the commentators say?

Musk poses "a delicate new challenge for Britain’s political leaders", said CNN. Starmer is "taking great pains to charm" President-elect Donald Trump, while "also hoping to hold back at home the growing influence of Reform UK".

For many Labour MPs, Musk's "anger – like much online trolling – remains little more than a sideshow", but others find themselves asking: "why us?" Unlike in other European countries, such as Germany, "there is no impending parliamentary election through which Musk can exert his influence", leaving many scratching their heads over Musk's apparent fixation with British politics.

While the next general election is still as much as four years away, "Musk can't be entirely ignored". With Labour "desperate to build trust with the Trump administration" and to generate economic growth at home, "the delicate nature of Starmer’s relationship with Trump may depend on keeping the billionaire at arm's length – for as long as that remains possible".

Earlier today, Starmer called out "those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible", although, notably, he refrained from naming Musk among them. Indeed, the "concern in No. 10 is that meeting fire with fire will only escalate the row further, and give Musk more oxygen", said The Times. And for No. 10, "the importance of retaining good relations with Trump cannot be overstated", after the president-elect "spent much of the US election campaign threatening to impose a blanket 10% tariffs on imports", a move that would do "huge damage" to Britain's economic prospects, a key priority for Starmer's government.

Musk has demonstrated that he is "capable of setting the political weather in the UK", with both the Conservatives and Reform UK now backing his calls for a public inquiry into grooming gangs. But as his volte-face on Farage this weekend demonstrates, the Tesla and X boss can be a "precarious ally". "So for now the strategy for dealing with Musk remains unchanged – to challenge him on points of fact but to avoid directly confronting him over his rhetoric."

What next?

Britain is far from Musk's "only target in Europe", said Euractiv. He met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, "a leading figure on the radical right", in December at his Florida home, and Musk has "also been accused of interference by the German government for his strong support of the far-right AfD party ahead of parliamentary elections". He is due to host a conversation with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel on X later this week.

And Musk could soon turn his attentions towards Paris, said Politico, with President Emmanuel Macron reportedly "desperate to get him onside".

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Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.