The attraction to Nigel Farage of trying to surf on the back of Elon Musk’s high media profile and financial resources has been obvious. Given many a journalist’s preoccupation with the views of someone who is not only the world’s richest man but one who also seems to have the ear of president-elect Trump, it looked like a good way of keeping Reform in the news.
Meanwhile, as the party sets about the crucial task of creating an activist organisation across the country, any financial largesse that Musk might be willing to send in its direction could help significantly in that endeavour.
Not that Musk is particularly popular in the UK. According to YouGov, less than one in five (18 per cent) feel favourably towards him, while nearly two thirds (64 per cent) feel unfavourably. His net rating is even worse than that of both Sir Keir Starmer and Farage himself – and has become increasingly negative the better known he has become.
Meanwhile, most Britons (62 per cent) do not use the X/Twitter social media platform that Musk owns and where he frequently airs his views. For most people, their knowledge, if any, of the man and his views will come from secondary reports in the media.
But Musk is regarded rather more favourably by those who voted for Reform in July 2024. Just over half of the party’s voters (54 per cent) say they think favourably of him, while only a quarter regard him unfavourably. Those who voted Conservative in July are also somewhat more favourably disposed – 28 per cent of them regard him favourably. So Farage sharing Musk’s spotlight was not necessarily unattractive to his party’s core supporters or to those it might hope to win over from the Conservatives.
However, allying with Musk has brought potential dangers. There has always been a risk that someone with an apparent compulsion to air his strong convictions would prove to be a fair-weather friend, should Farage’s views ever diverge from his own. That is what now appears to have happened over the case of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who in October last year was sent to jail for breaching a court injunction after losing a libel case.
Elon Musk will get bored of the UK - and we will pay the price
Read MoreAs leader of Ukip and now of Reform, Farage has always drawn the line at any association with the far right, including such organisations as the BNP and the English Defence League; Robinson has been a member of both. For Musk, by contrast, a committed advocate of free speech who has liberalised what can be said on X, Robinson has had his right to speak freely unacceptably curbed.
A difficulty for Farage in this row, however, is that many of Reform’s supporters are not unfavourably disposed to the far-right activist. Following last summer’s riots, only a third of those who voted Reform in July told YouGov that Robinson bore “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of responsibility for the unrest that occurred in the summer. Just over half (52 per cent) felt he bore “not much” or no responsibility at all. Among the public as a whole, in contrast, as many as 57 per cent felt that Robinson was responsible.
The spat with Musk over Robinson underlines one of the challenges facing Farage. While seeking to widen his party’s popularity, a task on which he has made notable progress since the election, a significant proportion of his party’s current supporters have views and sympathies that are more hardline than those espoused by the party. Farage has to retain their loyalty while widening the party’s pool of supporters – and the row with Musk will not make that task any easier.
Still, perhaps there is a wider warning here for Farage, who normally trades heavily on his British nationalism. His connections with president-elect Trump and his advisers undoubtedly give him a potential source of kudos that no other politician in the UK enjoys.
However, many Britons regard the new American regime with a degree of foreboding. In the coming weeks they might well want their politicians to be defending Britain’s interests rather than associating with Trump and his acolytes in the US.
John Curtice is Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde and Senior Fellow at the National Centre for Social Research and The UK in a Changing Europe
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