Is Musk the real Leader of the Opposition?
WILLIAM ATKINSON
Amongst the many pieces of good advice that I was given by our former Editor, one of the best was that you should never believe anything you read in the Sunday papers. Accordingly, ConservativeHome readers should apply a hefty pinch of salt to the suggestion in The Sunday Times that Elon Musk plans to give $100 million to Nigel Farage as an early Christmas present.
Musk retweeted approvingly a post suggesting Reform UK would win the next election, so “leading businessmen and Conservative Party officials” now “believe there is a credible prospect that [he] is preparing to give $100 million to Farage” in what is described as a “f*** you Starmer payment”. The pair are said to be in close contact. Musk “admires Farage and wants him to succeed”.
Tittle tattle? The well-oiled musings of a greybeard donor patched together with a couple of Tweets and dispatched to fill a few empty column inches? Or a genuine prospect? If the latter, it would not only put (literal) rocket boosters beneath Britain’s third party, but could be disastrous for the Tories. It should worry Kemi Badenoch much more than Keir Starmer’s latest re-launch.
Being Tesla’s CEO, X’s owner, and the world’s wealthiest chap keeps Musk busy enough when not celebrating Thanksgiving with the Trumps, plotting the colonisation of the solar system, prepping his new Department of Government Efficiency, or tackling birth rate decline. But in his few spare moments, Musk appears to enjoy nothing more than trying to make Starmer’s life more difficult.
Musk got along well enough with Rishi Sunak to sit down for the softest of soft-ball interviews. Disappointed to see a fellow tech bro turfed out, he has developed a particular animosity towards Sunak’s successor. From the Southport riots onwards, Musk has used every available opportunity to broadcast to his 206 million followers the latest travails of ‘two-tier Kier’.
With farmers treated like Kulaks and prisoners walking free as ordinary folk are locked up for their freeze peach, the “people of Britain have had enough of a tyrannical police state”. Musk promoted the petition calling for a new general election. Having previously said civil war was “inevitable” in Britain, at least he has come around to a peaceful transfer of power.
Why does Musk hold such a particular dislike of Starmer? I can’t imagine he loses too much sleep over any Labour plans to fiddle with the internet. Having made Twitter a safer space for all manner of fringes, he must see the Government’s heavy-handed response to August’s disturbances as a genuine threat to his principles. More importantly, winding up Starmer is a laugh.
Having helped Donald Trump back to the White House, it would only be natural for Musk to wonder if he could do the same for his best British pal. After all the months Dominic Cummings spent trying to get Silicon Valley to show a little interest in the Start-Up Party, it would be quietly amusing for Musk to give Farage millions just for bumping into him at the Mar-a-Largo bar.
Money doesn’t always buy success in politics. If it did, Kamala Harris would be the President-Elect, Britain would still be a member of the European Union, and Jimmy Goldsmith would have received a few more than 811, 849 votes for the £20 million he spent on the Referendum Party at the 1997 general election. Would such a big donation even get past the Electoral Commission?
If it did, the money would be transformational. Richard Tice has said that, whereas the Conservatives spend £35 million annually, Reform UK shells out less than £1.5 million, largely from his own pocket. $100 million is about £78 million. Even a fifth of that would give Reform more money than they would know what to do with. Boisdale’s should prepare for some very long lunches.
Musk not only brings the deep pockets of a squillionaire and the ear of the world’s most powerful man, but a unique platform. If Americans increasingly perceive Britain as an Orwellian basket case, it is because Musk has pushed that impression to a far wider audience than any New York Times lament has ever managed. Soft power means little in the trenches of the Meme Wars.
Musk’s influence is inescapable. Every Tweet in Starmer’s direction reaches an infinitely wider audience than an idle lobby briefing to the old media. Hence why Niall Ferguson is aiming to convince Musk that his gal Kemi, not Farage, deserves his largesse. With CCHQ increasingly decepit, Nigel Huddleston would not be opposed to a few Musk millions, and advice on just who to sack.
It would certainly be much more helpful to work with Musk than against him. British politics promises more turbulent than a loop-de-loop in the Bermuda Triangle. The future is looking distinctly German: Labour loses votes to parties to the left and populist right, allowing us back into office in a term on a low vote share. Traurigkeit über die Unzulänglichkeit der Welt.
With the obvious caveat of being up to four and half years out from the next general election, it would hardly be a surprise to see Labour come third or fourth next time around. They entered office historically unpopular and are only becoming more so, as they add to our failures on NHS waiting lists, living standards, and immigration their own pious pursuit of national humiliation.
The real fight is to be the party that replaces them in 2029. If Badenoch thinks she needs only to do the bare minimum to ensure the pendulum swings back to us, she will be in for a very rude awakening. Reform look set to overtake us in membership before local elections where Labour have to be extraordinarily badly for our seat total to go in any direction except down.
As Tory MSs plot, Plaid Cymru and Reform are projected to push us into fourth place at the next Senedd election. Our chance to permanently cement the allegiance of the Vote Leave coalition was sacrificed through our concerted effort to ignore the 2019 manifesto. Badenoch’s immigration timidity leaves the door for Farage. The Overton Window is getting a hearty push.
Musk’s backing would give Farage big bucks, but would be no guarantee of success. Ben Habib has become the latest victim of the ego of Clacton’s occasional MP. He has hithero been constrained in popularity by his titular paradox. Even if all Reform needs from him is cash and the odd retweet, don’t rule out Farage falling out with his new patron, or Musk losing interest.
But if he chose to, Musk has the opportunity to be a cross-continental political player beyond even Lord Beaverbrook or Rupert Murdoch. Whoever throws his weight behind, he can do far more to make Starmer’s life a misery than anything we could dream up. In a fight between a dreamless human rights lawyer and a billionaire booking flights to Mars, I know who I’m backing.
Musk is a Great Man of History – a Napoleon in an Occupy Mars t-shirt. For three decades, betting against him has been a very stupid idea. From space travel to AI, he is at the centre of the fundamental shifts driving mankind either towards enlightenment or destruction. Compared to that, winning a general election in an imperial province would be a doddle. All hail the God Emperor.
This article (Is Musk the real Leader of the Opposition?) was published by Conservative Home and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author William Atkinson
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