LONDON (AP) — It’s a photo that shook British politics: Elon Musk flanked by a British politician Nigel Farage and a rich donor, in front of a golden painting representing a young Donald Trump.
Taken this week at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the image suggested that Musk, a key player in the new US administration, may soon turn its disruptive attention to the UK
Farage, Britain’s most high-profile Trump champion, confirmed discussions were underway for Musk to make a large donation to Farage’s party. Reform United Kingdom. The Times of London reported that this amount could reach $100 million, which would be by far the largest political donation in British history. The reports have sparked calls for Britain’s rules on political donations to be tightened – and quickly.
“We discussed money,” Farage told GB News after the meeting with Musk. “This is a negotiation that we will come back to and resume. He is not against giving us money. He has not yet decided whether he will do so.
Britain imposes strict limits on the amount political parties can spend on elections, but they can accept unlimited donations, provided the donors are British voters or businesses registered in Britain. Musk’s social network X has a British branch, Twitter UK Ltd., whose address is registered in London.
Critics say this is a loophole that allows foreign influence on British politics. The vote watchdog, the Electoral Commission, is calling for changes, including limiting the amount a company can give, so it cannot invest more money than it makes in Great Britain. -Brittany.
“It is crucial that British voters have confidence in the funding of our political system,” the commission’s chief executive, Vijay Rangarajan, told the Guardian. “The system needs to be strengthened, and we have been calling for changes to the law since 2013, to protect the electoral system from foreign interference. »
Britain’s center-left Labor Party pledged during the summer election campaign to tighten rules on political donations, although no legislation is planned for the coming year. That of Prime Minister Keir Starmer Spokesman Dave Pares said Wednesday that work was already underway to “strengthen existing safeguards” against “unauthorized proxy donations.”
The Labor government and the conservative center-right opposition are trying to find a solution for Musk, who has made up his mind. strong interest in the United Kingdom. – and apparently formed a strong dislike for Starmer.
Musk often publishes on about the UK, retweeting criticism of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir – shorthand for an unsubstantiated claim that Britain has “two-tier policing”, with far-right protesters being treated more harshly as pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Musk compared Britain’s attempts to stamp out online misinformation to those of the Soviet Union and, over the summer, anti-immigrant violence across the UK tweeted that ‘civil war is inevitable’ .
Farage has echoed some of these themes in his own social media posts and in his party’s anti-‘woke’ agenda, which includes pledges to slash immigration, abandon targets for green energy and to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
Founded in 2021, Reform UK is the latest in a series of small far-right parties led by Farage that have enjoyed limited electoral success but outsized influence on British politics. Farage opposition to the European Union helped push the country to vote in 2016 to leave the bloc, a seismic political and economic rupture with the United Kingdom’s closest neighbors.
Reform UK won only five of the 650 seats in the House of Commons in July’s election, but came second out of dozens and received 14% of the vote. Today the organization strives to grow rapidly, attempting to professionalise its previously ramshackle organization and holding rallies across the UK to recruit new members.
Farage, an excellent communicator who has adopted TikTok and other platforms, aims to emulate Trump’s success by using the power of personality and social media to reach the “brother vote” – young men who are traditionally less likely to present themselves at the time of the elections.
Farage told GB News that Musk “has already been a huge help to me – understanding the process from start to finish, reaching out to disaffected communities who frankly feel there’s no point in voting for anyone” .
The electoral power of social media was demonstrated recently in Romania, where far-right candidate Călin Georgescu came from nowhere to win the first round of the presidential election in November, helped in part by a flood of TikTok videos promoting his campaign. Amid allegations that Russia organized a social media campaign to support Georgescu, the Romanian government The Constitutional Court annulled the presidential election runoff two days before the scheduled date.
As Britain’s Conservative Party attempts to recover from its worst election result since 1832, Farage dreams of making the Reform Party the main opposition – or even the government – after the next election, due by 2029.
That’s far from the case, but Rob Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said a large donation from Musk could have “disruptive potential in all sorts of ways.”
He said Musk’s money would give the Reform Party “the opportunity to try to build a serious campaign organization, which they generally lacked.”
“It certainly adds a new wild card to the deck of cards in British politics,” Ford said. “In recent years, we have seen no shortage of surprising developments. And maybe it will be next.
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A previous version of this story incorrectly gave the reported donation amount as £100 million. It’s $100 million.