Donald Trump will once again be US president very soon. But it’s not only the awfulness of the genocide-apologist elites of the Democratic Party that’s to blame. The massive support Trump received from billionaire Elon Musk was also a gamechanger. And now, Elon Musk is looking to give a boost to the far right in Britain too, which has been coalescing around millionaire bigot Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party and since the campaign to leave the EU. However, according to independent media outlet Byline Times, Farage has already got money off Musk.
Elon Musk: far-right agitator now noshing-off Reform?
Musk grew up in apartheid South Africa. His bigoted grandfather had settled there just after white colonial elites had instituted their racist system, and was a passionate supporter of the regime. And Musk seems to be going back to his roots. Because apart from cosying up to Trump, he has also wholeheartedly embraced other far-right figures across the globe, from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to India’s Narendra Modi, and from Italy’s Giorgia Meloni to Argentina’s Javier Milei.
This week, Musk seems to have turned his attention to Nigel Farage.
'Man who constantly claims foreigners undermine British sovereignty welcomes cash from foreigner to help undermine British sovereignty'. pic.twitter.com/vbqOGVsqib
— Adam Schwarz (@AdamJSchwarz) December 17, 2024
Musk had previously expressed his solidarity with racist rioters earlier in 2024, and the UK government apparently chose not to invite him to an international tech investment summit as a result. He didn’t take well to that.
Politico wrote about Musk’s potential support for Reform, saying:
Nigel Farage boasted that Elon Musk is “right behind” him — and raised the prospect of the tech tycoon opening up his checkbook to help Farage’s insurgent Reform UK party.
This came after a meeting with Musk at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on 16 December. Previously, the Sunday Times had suggested that Musk might be “considering donating up to $100 million to support Farage’s fight”, but “both camps” denied this.
As the Byline Times has reported, however, Musk’s website is already giving financial support as part of its “creators” program. It said:
Reform UK MPs Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe have both declared payouts from the company in their recent parliamentary register of interests.
Reform is a real danger. The left urgently needs to unite against it.
Farage has made the most of the chaos in the Conservative Party and the disastrous neoliberal resurgence in the Labour Party under the thoroughly unpopular Keir Starmer. In fact, he actually appears to be more popular than the current prime minister.
Reform has portrayed itself as an outsider that’s in touch with voters’ overwhelming disenchantment with the political system in order to attract support for its elitist, corporate agenda.
And with the two main establishment parties pandering to the far right’s agenda in an attempt to compete with Reform’s increasing capitalisation on their uselessness, many on the left of British politics fear Farage’s party has a real chance of forming a government in the next election unless a left-wing coalition is able to unite to offer the public a meaningful alternative to address their woes.
Left-wing councillor Sean Halsall, for example, has insisted that Reform is “clearly trying to appeal to a space to the left of Labour that currently isn’t filled at the moment” by offering some populist policies among their neoliberal ones. He added that “Keir Starmer has absolutely given the space for fascists to capitalise on working-class communities who don’t feel they’re being delivered for”.
Previously, he suspected that in government, Starmer would simply act “as a midwife for fascism”, explaining that, “if we don’t deliver for working people, then unfortunately the far right will capitalise on that and use that as a way to mobilise people”.
With Musk potentially getting behind Farage and Reform, the task of building a united left-wing movement to offer people something hopeful to vote for is more urgent than ever.
Featured image via screengrab
