How far do Elon Musk and Reform UK share a political vision?
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Immigration, culture wars and shrinking the public sector all feature highly on their agendas. The get-together last week of Elon Musk, Nigel Farage and Reform UK’s treasurer, Nick Candy, wasn’t just a gathering of Donald Trump fans. It was a meeting of minds.
Immigration, culture wars and shrinking the public sector all feature highly on their political agendas, developed under the umbrella of Trump’s Maga vision. “We only have one more chance left to save the west and we can do great things together,” said Farage afterwards.
It also revived speculation that Musk could donate as much as $100m to Reform UK, even if there are signs that such a move might actually be opposed by voters. A ban on wealthy foreign nationals being able to give large sums of money to British political parties was backed by 55%, according to a survey by Survation for the campaign group 38 Degrees.
Asked specifically about Musk, two-thirds (66%) said he should not become influential in British politics. Even among Reform UK voters, 51% did not want to see Musk become influential. Money aside though, the ideological common ground between Musk and Reform UK is clear in some areas.
Musk is a vocal critic of US immigration policy, making him a natural ideological bedfellow with Reform UK. Referring to the US-Mexico border this year, he said “unvetted immigration at large scale is a recipe for disaster” and called for a “secure southern border”. However, he also called for “greatly expediting legal immigration”, reflecting US tech industry concerns about labour needs.
