There’s no doubt that Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and live-in best friend of the US president-elect, must be a busy man – even before a Tesla truck exploded at the entrance to the Trump hotel in Las Vegas on 1 January.
Musk was up late dad-dancing at Donald Trump’s glitzy New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago. Then there is the string of major companies he is involved in running, including Tesla, Space X, Starlink, the Boring Company, Neuralink and OpenAI.
Yet he still found time to start the year opining on British politics on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter which he bought for $44bn in 2022. Each post typically attracts tens of millions of views.
There is no obvious reason for Musk’s recent interventions in British affairs. He has made similar headline-grabbing pronouncements on German politics, causing outrage over the Christmas period by publicly endorsing the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party ahead of February’s elections.
Musk is South African born, of English and Dutch heritage. He emigrated to Canada and took Canadian citizenship before becoming a US citizen in 2002. As Trump has pointed out “Elon” is a natural-born foreigner and so barred by the constitution from becoming the actual US president.
The frequency of the billionaire’s outpourings suggests a determination to use his power and influence to spread his opinions far and wide. In recent months he has homed in on hot political topics in Britain, including, in the first few days of 2025, the issue of grooming gangs.
Some in Britain are welcoming him in. Musk was the star guest at then Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Artificial Intelligence summit in November 2023. Since then, he has turned to the Reform UK party. Before Christmas, Musk invited Nigel Farage MP and Reform’s billionaire new treasurer, Nick Candy, to his current lodgings at Mar-a-Largo. The trio were pictured sitting below an old, flattering portrait of Trump, although it’s not clear whether they were granted an audience with him.
The visit stirred up speculation that Musk could make a massive donation to Reform UK, similar to the hundreds of millions of dollars he spent on Trump’s victorious campaign. The tech giant has denied the rumours and there are electoral rules against foreign donations. While Nigel Farage has made light of a possible Musk windfall, he has made it clear that any legal funding would be welcome.
Meanwhile, the British government has declined to tighten the law in response to the rumours of Musk money. Ironically, Musk was quick on the attack during the US election when Labour volunteers went to help the Democrats. He accused Labour’s campaign chief Morgan McSweeney of “violating US criminal statutes against foreign interference in elections”.
Britain’s Online Safety Act of 2023 may be one reason why the tech entrepreneur is increasingly intervening with criticism of the British authorities who he claimed are presiding over “a tyrannical police state”. X, and other platforms, face potentially massive fines of either £18m or up to 10% of worldwide revenue (whichever is greater), if they host disinformation or misinformation promoting racially or religiously aggravated public order offences or the incitement of violence.
Musk’s interest in the UK has picked up since Labour’s general election victory last summer and the riots after three young girls were killed at a dance class in Southport. False rumours about the attacker were promulgated on X, including by accounts which Musk had unblocked. When Sir Keir Starmer warned big tech companies that whipping up violent disorder online is “also a crime”, Musk retorted “Insane” on X, claiming later that in Britain “civil war is inevitable”.
More than 19 million YouTube listeners tuned into Musk discussing the UK’s “prison overcrowding situation” on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He also joined in “What on earth is going on in the UK?” in response to a right-wing American’s exaggerated posts about an official report into Islamist radicalisation in the UK.
Musk describes himself as X’s “Chief Troll officer”. Those from this country he has linked up with online include Liz Truss, the populist academic Matt Goodwin and Winston Marshall, son of GB News owner Paul Marshall.
Despite his loud support for longer prison sentences, Musk has posted on X that the authorities should “Free Tommy Robinson”, adding that a banned video by the English Defence League co-founder was “worth watching”. Robinson, whose given name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is currently serving an 18-month sentence for violating a court order by repeating libellous claims – made in the banned video – against a young Syrian refugee.
In the first 36 hours of 2025, Musk’s X posts included “a new election should be called in Britain”, “Vote Reform” and “Shameful conduct by Jess Phillips. Throw her out”. That last comment relates to a story, first reported on GB News, that Ms Phillips, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, has declined to order a national inquiry into grooming gangs in Oldham.
Ms Phillips responded that such an inquiry should be a matter for the local council; Musk said she “should be in prison”. His intervention has forced the long-standing scandal back on to the agenda. The new Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch followed up on 2 January by demanding “a full national inquiry into the rape gangs scandal”.
Ms Badenoch’s response to Musk’s repeated interference seems contradictory. Last November, during Prime Minister’s Questions she challenged Starmer with the online petition, which Musk had promoted, calling for another general election. But speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme in December, she said: “I think we need to make sure that we don’t have foreign states, undue influence, bad actors influencing our politics” although she made no proposals to strengthen the law.
As she edges towards some of Reform’s policies, the Tory leader was alleged to have complained that GB News gives too much of a platform to Mr Farage’s party. Ms Badenoch has since dismissed the claims, made in a national newspaper, as “nonsense”.
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Meanwhile, Musk’s spats with the Labour government continue. At the end of last year, he mocked ministers’ hopes of increased investment in the UK, including by Tesla, with the blunt statement on X that: “Very few companies will be willing to invest in the UK with the current administration.” Downing Street hit back, insisting Starmer’s government was “unashamedly” pro-growth.
To some, notably many young men, Musk is a folk hero. Yet in a recent UK poll, 66% of those surveyed, said that Musk “should not become influential” in British politics, including just over half, 51%, of Reform UK supporters. But despite this resistance to foreign interference, it is too late to stop Musk’s forceful contributions into the national debate.
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Self-evidently Elon Musk has a great understanding of new technology such as AI which he calls “the most disruptive force in history”. He told Prime Minister Rishi Sunak that “one of the challenges in the future will be how do we find meaning in life” because “there will come a point where no job is needed… AI will do everything.”
As another challenging year gets under way, Musk is set to garner ever more influence as Trump’s efficiency tsar. The richest man on the planet is to set to become one of its biggest political players. It remains to be seen if he will be too busy with domestic affairs to continue his disputes with foreign powers. Perhaps his new boss will attempt to reign him in, for fear of being overshadowed – but in the meantime he is currently making more headlines here than any of our homegrown politicians.