Nigel Farage has hailed Elon Musk as a “hero” and said he was “very pleased he’s backing our party”, but he called reports that the tech mogul was preparing to donate $100m (£80m) to Reform UK “somewhat overexaggerated”.
Speaking at Reform’s East Midlands conference on Friday night, the party leader said Musk’s efficiency plan for Donald Trump’s government was the “blueprint we need” as he called for a “complete change of culture in Britain”.
“I am very pleased he’s backing our party, even if reports of his potential financial donations are somewhat overexaggerated,” he said. “Whether we like everything he says or not, he’s a hero.”
The tech billionaire has been weighing in on British politics in recent months, and told his social media followers on Thursday that “Britain needs Reform now” as rumours circulated he is preparing to give the party up to $100m.
He has also tweeted in support of Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon and was jailed for 18 months for contempt of court in October, and has been accused of “politicising” the rape of young girls with his comments about child grooming rings in the UK.
Farage told GB News that Robinson is “not what we need”. “[Musk] sees Robinson as one of these people that fought against the grooming gangs. But of course the truth is Tommy Robinson’s in prison not for that, but for contempt of court,” he said. “We’re a political party aiming to win the next general election. [Robinson] is not what we need.”
He also announced that Reform was going to make Kemi Badenoch’s seat a “target constituency” for the next general election, as he declared “the gloves are off” after she did not apologise for claiming his party’s membership numbers had been faked.
The Conservative leader previously accused Farage of “fakery” after he said Reform membership had surpassed the 131,680 Conservative members recorded last year.
He claimed his party has nearly 400 members in Badenoch’s North West Essex seat, and would be rallying support there at a conference scheduled for the end of the month.
“Not only are these not fake members, but we’re now going to make this a target constituency for the next general election,” he said. “You accused me of being dishonest. You had your chance to apologise. Well now the gloves are off.”
Badenoch said the membership figure, displayed on the Reform UK website, was “coded to tick up automatically” and that “this kind of fakery gets found out pretty quickly, although not before many are fooled”.
Earlier on Friday, Farage posted on X to say an “apology had not been forthcoming” from Badenoch regarding “her crazy conspiracy theories”, and said he planned to respond in a speech at the East Midlands conference, attended by about 1,000 members.
Former Conservative MP Marco Longhi made an appearance at the event, hours after announcing he had defected to Reform, saying: “The betrayals we have seen in recent years have been so huge they eclipse any sense of loyalty I have.”
He represented Dudley North in the West Midlands from 2019-24 and said the “party I have been loyal to over decades is unrecognisable”.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the venue on Friday evening, chanting “refugees are welcome here” as delegates filtered inside.
When the party chair, Zia Yusuf, took to the stage he told the crowd: “According to Kemi, you are nothing more than a figment of Nigel’s imagination.”
He said Badenoch had “inexplicably made the unwise decision to accuse us of faking our membership”, before thanking her and claiming her comments had led to a boost in sign ups.
