Farage-Musk split could threaten Reform’s momentum
4 min read
The budding friendship between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is already in tatters.
Both seen as disruptors, with dedicated fan bases and unvarnished approaches to diplomacy, it was a political match made in heaven. Yet their very public disagreement over the far-right activist Tommy Robinson led to Musk’s shock decision to call for Farage to be deposed as Reform leader, stating that he “doesn’t have what it takes”.
It quashed any rumours that the X (formerly Twitter) CEO was set to make the biggest single donation in British political history. One hundred million dollars could buy you a lot in British politics, especially for a party like Reform. Such a large cash injection would have set up the party up as a serious challenger at the next general election, allowing investment to professionalise and size-up party machinery to match the Conservatives and Labour.
But the very public quarrel may now see Musk openly acting in opposition to Farage’s project.
Despite gaining traction across platforms such as Facebook and TikTok at the last general election, the engagement metrics still have X as the most important platform for Reform in terms of views, likes and shares. While outright banning Farage’s party from the platform would be highly unlikely, there is evidence that Musk has introduced politically motivated algorithmic bias into the platform, and with Musk turning on (or off) the taps to social media engagement this public disagreement could have long-term effects to the party’s reach.
The withdrawing of Musk’s support could be a minor blip rather than a major hurdle
While Reform has distanced itself from EDL co-founder Tommy Robinson, other Reform-attached figures have been in full support. Ben Habib – the party’s former deputy leader who recently resigned his membership after a public falling out with Farage – has come out in support of Robinson while lambasting Farage’s comments. Last week Howard Cox, Reform’s former London mayoral candidate, also quit the party, in part due to his position on Robinson. This could lead to more splits if echoed by other members.
Musk could very well switch his support to another political entity. He has already posted in support of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch for her stance on grooming gangs. There’s probably little coincidence that Andrew Tate, a far-right misogynist social media personality, registered his new party’s domain on the same day Musk called out Reform’s leader.
Meanwhile, Farage says he intends to mend the relationship with Musk when he visits the US for the inauguration later this month. This all points towards a behind--the-scenes game to access favourable social media engagement and potential donations.
It is worth remembering that Reform came out of the last election extremely well. On aggregate, the party had 14.4 per cent of the national vote; this only returned five MPs, but they came second in 98 seats. They have overtaken the Tories in terms of members – although it’s unclear how many are still members of another party – and have their sights set on the 2026 Welsh and Scottish elections.
While X is an important platform for the party, Reform’s audience across other social media sites is still sizeable. As such, the withdrawing of Musk’s support could be a minor blip rather than a major hurdle to the party in upcoming local elections in May.
Likewise, Farage is better acclimatised to British politics, and being seen to publicly fight back against American influence could be viewed favourably by his followers. I bet you didn’t have Nigel Farage having a Love Actually moment in your 2025 predictions.
Why is Musk so fixated on British politics? His posting habits on X show that this year he has spent more time commenting on it than any other subject combined. Undoubtedly he’s a busy man – with Tesla, SpaceX and X to run, alongside the new US Department of Government Efficiency. Did he simply spot a gap for yet more political disruption?
As a representative of the incoming Trump administration, his interventions have been highly controversial. Attacks on British political figures in any other situation would be seen as a diplomatic blunder. But these are uncharted times and the Trump administration was never going to play by the normal rules.
Dr Liam McLoughlin, lecturer of digital politics at the University of Liverpool
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