NIGEL Farage has said Elon Musk giving Reform UK money would make the party “look cool”.
In a BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg, the Reform UK leader refused to deny Musk was going to give his party a donation, though he insisted reports the X owner could invest $100 million was “for the birds”.
He added that support from Musk would make the party popular with young people.
Farage branded Musk a "hero" at a conference in Leicester on Saturday despite Musk's calls for far-right activist Tommy Robinson to be released from prison.
Musk pinned a message at the top of his Twitter/X feed last week which read “Free Tommy Robinson!”.
On the show, Farage was asked about his “bromance” with US president-elect Donald Trump who he supported prolifically in the run-up to the US election last year.
He said: “I made a decision in 2016 to put my head over the parapet to support Trump. I have stuck with him through thick and thin.
Donald Trump "may be the last American president with a deep emotional attachment to [the UK]", Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says He adds "things that could hurt us" when Trump becomes president, such as tariffs, are "all avoidable"#BBCLauraK https://t.co/A1kCxfYTtu pic.twitter.com/UbWjLc5RcN
— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 5, 2025
“At times it’s not been easy. Maybe at times I was the only public figure in Britain that would stand up for him. Trump is an old school businessman in the sense that if you are loyal to him he is loyal to you, and that is what friendships are based on.”
Farage was then pressed on whether Trump’s friend Musk – who has been tasked with leading the president-elect’s Department of Government Efficiency – was now his friend and would be giving him millions of pounds.
“Well that’s a real question isn’t it,” Farage replied.
“Forget about the hundred million dollars being talked about in the newspapers, that is for the birds.”
“Whether he does or not, I will tell you what he gives us. With huge numbers of young people he makes us look cool.”
Farage added he did not agree with “everything” Musk stands for but does believe in free speech when he was asked why he seemed reluctant to criticise him.
Earlier in the interview, Farage defended Musk after the billionaire attacked the UK Government over its handling of grooming gangs in a series of posts on X.
Musk suggested safeguarding minister Jess Phillips “deserves to be in prison” for denying requests for the Home Office to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham.
He also attacked Keir Starmer, saying the Prime Minister failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice when he was director of public prosecutions.
Farage told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme that Musk had used “very tough terms” but that “free speech was back” on X under his ownership.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who was also on the programme, said he is “not interested” in what Musk has to say about the UK’s handling of grooming gangs, adding that the Prime Minister and minister Jess Phillips “don’t need lectures” from anyone on how to lock up sex offenders.
He added Musk’s attacks on Phillips are a “disgraceful smear” considering her efforts to support victims of abuse.
“It is a disgraceful smear of a great woman who has spent her life supporting victims of the kind of violence that Elon Musk and others say that they’re against,” Streeting said.
