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Money, lawyers or boosting Farage on X: how Elon Musk could affect UK politics | Elon Musk


eElon Musk seems to have many obsessions. The world’s richest man is an evangelist about electric vehicles, space travel and Donald Trump. Another interest of his may yet have profound implications for the UK: British politics.

The billionaire is reportedly considering becoming the biggest donor in history a rumored £80m payment to Nigel Farag’s Reform UK party.

Like so many who have embraced Trump’s militant brand of right-wing populism, Musk has been radicalized by his frustrations with gridlock, according to Musk watchers.

Annoyed by the way production at his Tesla car plants was hit, he began spending more time online, continuing to test the limits of the disinformation rules set forth by Twitter, as it was then known.

Now, having helped propel Trump to the White Househe is reportedly turning his interest to Britain.

Sources at Reform said they were not aware of Musk’s spending plans, but he also denied them. But if the Tesla and X owner backs up his online criticism of Keir Starmer’s government with a mega-donation to Labor opponents, it could prove to be one of the most consequential political acts of this Parliament.

Within two years of its purchase in October 2022 on X, formerly Twitter, Musk had already become a darling of the international far-right, which was grateful for the reinstatement of previously suspended accounts under the banner of free speech. But Musk then went further, using his own account to amplify the message of far-right activist and convicted felon Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.

At the time of this year’s riots in English cities, Musk was engaged in a full-scale attack on Labor government, claiming “civil war is inevitable” and describing the prime minister as a “two-tier Keir” in an echo of the position that the police treat white far-right “protesters” more harshly than minority groups.

However, there was speculation last weekend that Musk could be trading words for action when it comes to Britain, when the Sunday Times reported that he could be about to make an £80m donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party and believed the MP would be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Musk denied the claim on Thursday, but Reform United Kingdom was apparently tight-lipped about it, while Farage boasted last month that he expected to rely on help from his “new friend Elon” at the next general election. A major donor to his party was even quite bullish, telling the Guardian this week: “Watch this space.”

Musk’s fortune has increased by $133bn (£104.4bn) so far this year to $362bn, coming from a roughly 13% stake in Tesla and his ownership of a number of companies.

The reasons behind Musk’s apparent hostility to Starmer – and interest in the UK – may be more complex.

The range of theories as to why the UK is in Musk’s crosshairs include the idea that he has come to see Britain as the center of what he described as an “awakened consciousness virus”, which he blames for the gender reassignment of his estranged daughter.

A more exotic theory – based in part on when Musk was active X – is that his tweeting in response to breaking news in the UK is a result of his tendency to stay up late in the US.

“I don’t think I should be tweeting after 3am,” Musk told the BBC last year.

However, one of the most obvious explanations has to do with the clear clash between Musk’s own libertarian, ultra-liberal vision of X being a true “town square” of the internet and Labour’s mission to crack down on online hate speech.

Musk is “accountable to no one,” Peter Kyle, the science and technology secretary and the man directly responsible for the British government’s engagement with social media companies, complained in August. What may also have irked Musk is the role of Labor figures, including Morgan McSweeney, now Starmer’s chief of staff, in founding the Center to Counter Digital Hate (CCDH), a critic of Musk’s removal from what which was Twitter’s guardrail against hate speech. In October, Musk had issued a declaration of “war” on CCDH, which he described as a “criminal organization” that he “will go after.”

However, there is no indication that calling Musk to account will stop the inroads into right-wing politics in the UK. Beyond the near-relentless stream of tweets, how Musk might increase his footprint in British public life is less clear.

Musk could circumvent strict regulations on overseas donations either by giving money through X’s British arm or by securing British citizenship, which his father Errol said he was eligible for because his grandmother is British.

Musk may also be tempted to enter further into the debate with British industry and engage even more with the Starmer government.

Musk’s last high-profile engagement in the UK was in November last year, when he attended the inaugural AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, home of the Enigma code breakers. Those who met Musk at the Bletchley summit said he was polite, chatty and surrounded by a surprisingly minimal entourage, appearing to handle many of the official emails for the event himself.

This convinced one former government adviser that discussing AI policy was perhaps the best way Labor could build a useful relationship with Musk. The tech tycoon, who created his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, has consistently warned about the dangers of unchecked technology development. Speaking at the summit, he said: “There is some chance, above zero, that AI will kill us all.”

The former adviser said the creation of Britain’s AI Safety Institute by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, a world first at the time, could carry some weight for Musk.

“He cares about AI safety and has for years. Having a grown-up conversation with him about the UK’s world-leading work on national security risks from AI feels like a good place to start,” the former adviser said, adding that Rishi Sunak would make a good emissary even if Starmer found that politically unpleasant. “Musk takes no fools and Sunak really knows his stuff in AI.”

Another option would be to send Kyle, who has impressed with his understanding of his memo, and national security adviser Jonathan Powell. “That would show seriousness,” the former adviser said.

An indication of the current government’s wariness of Musk can be gauged from the extent to which correspondence between Musk’s office and the Cabinet Office regarding the Bletchley Park summit was so heavily redacted when it was published this week by the Guardian following a request for freedom of information.

It included an email from “Mr Musk’s office” to Number 10 last November in which Sunak was informed that Musk would not be attending the second day of the summit “due to critical issues”. At the time, Musk’s no-show was planned, as it was about heads of government instead.

“That’s unfortunate. But of course we understand,” Musk’s No. 10 said, the emails show.

Donald Trump blusters and lies repeatedly in interview with Elon Musk – video

Musk can still build a bridgehead to Starmer’s government beyond his provocative social media posts. X is now advertising for a regulatory legal adviser in London or Dublin, as well as a “senior associate, government affairs” to be based in the European headquarters in Dublin, who will “identify opportunities for X to protect freedom of expression”.

The nightmare for Starmer is that Musk can strongly back Farage and use his considerable resources, even without giving tens of millions of pounds.

A former London-based Twitter employee who was at the company when Musk took over said: “At the back end of Twitter, there were always ways to insure people – we called them VITs [very important Tweeters] – can be amplified, even though you never would. But I noticed shortly after he fired a lot of people that he put this boost tag on his own name, so whether you followed him or not, it was showing up in everyone’s feed.

“It’s something he could choose to do for anyone else, whether it’s an election in the US or the UK, whether he’s trying to sway people’s perceptions of, say, Keir Starmer or encourage someone like Nigel Farage.

“I think Twitter and now X is like a crack addiction for him. He’s obviously chasing a certain hit all along and ends up radicalizing himself with the platform he’s purchased.”

This platform has already had a tangible impact on the fortunes of the British far-right, which has struggled to reach a large audience after being de-platformed by major social media companies.

His takeover of Twitter changed that, according to Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope Not Hate, who noted that Yaxley-Lennon specifically thanked Musk during a demonstration in July.

He said: “A number of the most prominent figures spreading misinformation during this year’s riots have had their X accounts back due to Musk’s amnesty. Musk’s decision to platform, engage with and amplify extremist personalities in the UK is having a tangible effect on our politics and on our streets.

Musk has been reached for comment.

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