Bromance on the rocks: where does Musk’s brush-off leave Nigel Farage?
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The Reform leader’s dalliance with the US billionaire looks in trouble after an abrupt about-turn from the X boss. It was the morning after the rather disappointing day before. “At the moment, I am just letting things lie,” Nigel Farage told the Guardian with a dry chuckle on being asked whether he might attempt a rapprochement with the world’s richest man.
![[Daniel Boffey]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2017/10/06/Daniel-Boffey,-L.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
It has been quite the three weeks since Farage and Reform’s treasurer, Nick Candy, enjoyed a well-publicised meeting with Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida’s Palm Beach. According to Farage’s own account at the time, Musk had been “generous with his time” and there had been talks about a donation to Reform’s coffers. It appeared to herald a new dawn in British politics.
“He described the Labour and Conservative parties as the uniparty, and left us in no doubt that he is right behind us,” Farage wrote of their discussions on 16 December. On 2 January, Musk, among his many tweets about the UK and child abuse, tweeted: “Britain needs Reform now.”.
By Sunday, a different mood had taken the capricious billionaire. “The Reform party needs a new leader,” Musk informed his 211 million followers. “Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”. The unlikely bromance appeared to be over. The cause was seemingly Farage’s attempt to distance himself from Musk’s support for Tommy Robinson, the convicted fraudster and former English Defence League leader who is in prison for contempt of court. But does it really matter?.
