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South African-born billionaire and tech mogul Elon Musk has reignited a feud with Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage, dubbing him “weak sauce who will do nothing” to curb immigration into Britain.
Musk’s comments on X come a day after Farage unveiled his party’s plans to crack down on illegal immigration if his party wins the next general election.
Farage pledged to pull the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and start mass deportations of anyone who arrived in the country illegally.
“If you come to the UK illegally, you will be detained and deported and never, ever allowed to stay, period,” Farage said at a press conference in Oxford on Tuesday.
But those remarks did not seem to cut much ice with Musk, who branded Farage “weak” and threw his support behind the new Advance UK party, an offshoot of Reform founded by former deputy leader Ben Habib and backed by far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
“Advance UK will actually drive change,” Musk claimed in his X post.
Musk was replying to a post by Robinson in which he urged former Reform MP Rupert Lowe to join Advance after an earlier split with Farage.
“Unfortunately, the reality is that Farage will do almost nothing to protect Britain. That is obvious,” Musk said of Farage in an earlier post.
Habib founded Advance UK in June of this year, following disagreements with Farage that led to his departure from Reform UK in December.
Situated at the same end of the political spectrum as right-wing Reform, Advance advocates for the UK’s “Christian constitution,” freedom of speech and adherence to UK law.
Attention from Musk has boosted the influence of members of far-right fringe parties in the UK.
Days before last year’s general elections, Musk took to X to ask Farage: “Why does the media keep calling you far-right? What are your policies?”
“Because we believe in family, country and strong borders. Call me!” Farage replied.
Such interactions from Musk, who heads Tesla and SpaceX, helped Farage more than triple his daily audience.
But things went sour between the pair in January, when Musk said Farage did not have what it takes to lead Reform, after his rejection of involving Robinson in an official capacity in the party.
“The Reform Party needs a new leader,” Musk said.
While Farage said he was surprised by Musk’s comments, he stated that he was determined to repair their relationship due to the benefits the association brought to his party.
“Not having Elon’s support would damage us with that younger generation because he kind of makes us look cool, so I’m being frank about that, and I am confident that whatever has been said, we can mend,” he said.
Farage later claimed that Musk was only “trying to encourage” him when he called him to be replaced as party leader.
“We talked about it,” he said on the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme.
“He was just trying to encourage me in a few policy areas, ones I wasn’t prepared to go down.”
Musk himself is no stranger to online spats. In an extraordinary exchange of insults earlier this year, he went head to head with his former boss, US President Donald Trump, after his tenure heading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ended.
