LATIKA M BOURKE: Elon Musk wants Nigel Farage spilled. He just did the Reform leader a massive favour

We all knew this day was coming. In a field of gigantic egos, just when would Elon’s explode and who would it take out first — himself or his target?

Emboldened by his late-hour decision to back Donald Trump for President and success in securing himself a job in the incoming Administration, the world’s richest man is attempting to replicate MAGA’s populist success in Europe.

Citing his business interests in Germany, he has backed the Alternative for Deutschland, the anti-Islam far-right party that is polling second ahead of Germany’s election on February 23.

Musk — a free-speech absolutist who loves posting humorous and provocative memes — also has considerable interests in China, where his Tesla electric cars are produced. But he notably has almost nothing to say about the Chinese Communist Party’s repression of its citizens, denial of their free speech and blanket censorship online including harmless memes likening President Xi Jinping’s appearance to Winnie the Pooh.

But he has plenty to say about Europe and the UK where he has found new political besties in the AfD’s leader Alice Weidel and Nigel Farage, the former UKIP leader turned Reform party founder and long-time friend of Donald Trump.

But in the first of what many expect will be a series of bust-ups, between the world’s richest man and his powerful friends, Musk sensationally called on Nigel Farage to quit as party leader.

Reform is surging in the polls and won 14 per cent of the vote at the last election, a feat only made possible by Nigel Farage’s last-minute decision to return to the political battlefield and lead the party.

One of Britain’s best communicators, he has a Boris Johson-like skill in being able to talk to the big end of town and a disgruntled voter in the pub. Like all successful populists, he has a charisma and charming personal manner, and it drives his political opponents wild.

Farage is despised by the left for driving the Brexit referendum, which until then was the high-water mark of his success. He had ironically achieved more to change the country outside the Parliament than inside it, not that that was for a lack of trying.

He has stood seven times for parliament and on his first go as a UKIP candidate in 1994, won just 952 votes.

Two decades later he finally conquered Britain’s First-Past-The-Post system entering the House of Commons with four colleagues in the 2024 election.

With party membership swelling to 170,000 paid members, Farage is at the peak of his political prowess and is being taken seriously when he sets out his ambition to replace the Conservative party as the party of the right, and maybe even win government.

Across the Atlantic, his mate, Donald Trump is approaching his inauguration and Farage has been a regular at Mar-a-Lago, at Trump rallies and was at Trump’s victory night party.

In Florida, Farage cultivated important connections, namely Elon Musk, who could offer financial backing to Reform to bolster the pair’s dream of populists taking control of Number 10 and “making Britain Great Again.”

“I am very pleased he’s backing our party, even if reports of his potential financial donations are somewhat over-exaggerated,” Farage told a party rally on Friday night.

“Whether we like everything he says or not, he’s a hero.”

He praised the billionaire’s support as “very helpful to our cause,” particularly in rallying younger voters.

But the love-in between Farage and his new-found hero came to a crashing halt on Sunday over the far-right criminal Tommy Robinson, who is serving jail time for breaching contempt of court relating to his libelling of a Syrian refugee.

Robinson has long been persona non grata for Farage. In fact the reason Farage quit his former UKIP party was because his former colleagues there were cosying up to Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League.

But Musk has, inexplicably, taken a sudden interest in Robinson’s case, urging him to be freed and drawing attention to the historical grooming gangs scandal, in which young girls were left at the mercy of rape gangs, and in specific instances, gangs comprising British Pakistani males.

The grooming gangs scandal, which sparked an inquiry, has continued to simmer with the former Conservative government raising concerns that political correctness in policing had played a role.

But Musk, who has been campaigning against Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer since his election last year and the summer race riots, has reignited the issue by accusing the new government of complicity — and in one 24-hour period posted about it 40 times.

But his backing of Robinson forced Farage to get off the fence, Farage, sensibly, chose his electoral interests.

“Everyone says, well, what about his comments on Tommy Robinson?” Farage told British broadcasters.

“Look, my position is perfectly clear on that.

“I never wanted Tommy Robinson to join UKIP, I don’t want him to join Reform UK, and he won’t be.”

Musk’s revenge was swift.

“The Reform Party needs a new leader,” he wrote on his social media platform X.

“Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”

Farage was typically British in response.

“Well, this is a surprise!” he said, also in a post on X.

“Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree.

“My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.”

If Musk was a hero just a few hours prior and his support “very helpful for our cause,” the fall-out might seem a disaster for Reform at first blush.

But it is more likely a godsend.

Musk and Trump are not popular or liked figures in Britain, which although is certainly flirting with populism like the United States and Europe, is a mostly polite society.

For context, this is a country where the centre-right passed gay marriage, put net zero into law and sees NATO as sacrosanct.

In contrast with MAGA, even Reform supporters back arming Ukraine.

Farage’s mission for 2025 is to professionalise the party so that it comes of age in time for the next federal election.

A very public, yet polite row with Musk, enables him to paint himself as a sensible, moderate voice of reason in contrast to Musk’s hyperactive and freewheeling style.

But it is the substance that most matters. Farage has read the British people right. The think tank More in Common, which focuses on trying to heal social polarisation, found in a poll in August last year that only 11 per cent of Britons supported the jailed activist.

Farage set down a marker that exposes Musk’s limitations in commentating as a foreigner, without taking the time or consideration to understand a different political context.

Musk might have command of huge companies in Tesla, X and Space X, and the ear of the most powerful President in the world, as well as the ability to tweak an algorithm in favour of his ideological bedfellows, but it turns out nothing can buy you wisdom if your default tendency is haste.

But the benefactor, inadvertently, will be the man Musk called to be removed.