Elon Musk looms large over UK politics as MPs return for 2025
2025-01-06
Category: news

The new year in politics starts with the bang of a billionaire with a bigger mouth than his bank balance.Elon Musk has been lobbing almost as many digital darts over the Atlantic as Luke Littler has the real things in the last couple of days.The world's richest man has been sounding off in the strongest possible terms about the prime minister for almost as long as Sir Keir Starmer has been in Downing Street.In recent days, the focus has been on child sexual exploitation and Musk's allegation that the prime minister was "complicit in the rape of Britain" when he was Director of Public Prosecutions by failing to deal with the scandal.I'm told Sir Keir "will not want to get into a food fight with Musk" but will make a robust defence of his time as chief prosecutor.He is also keen to emphasise the importance of political debate being grounded in verifiable facts and that Musk is making claims that are "blatantly untrue" as one source put it. Sources point, for instance, to those defending the Prime Minister's record as DPP. Those in government also point to the local inquiries there have been into the abuse and rape of vulnerable young girls by groups of men mainly of Pakistani descent – and the national inquiry conducted by Professor Alexis Jay. The Conservatives, Reform and Elon Musk have each expressed varying degrees of outrage in recent days that the government has said no to a public inquiry into the scandal.But few expected this weekend's twist: that within hours of the Reform leader Nigel Farage describing Musk as a "hero" who "makes us look cool," the X owner said Reform needed a new leader as Farage "doesn't have what it takes".
"It's not been the perfect day," said one Reform figure with a splash of understatement and a smile. "We probably do look a bit silly."Farage's repeated statements distancing himself from the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, appear to be at the heart of the spat.Reform hadn't seen this coming. Just weeks ago they were talking up the prospect of a big money donation from Elon Musk – but are now trying to put the best spin on things."Nigel is not for sale," is how one senior party figure put it to me, saying this showed that the Reform leader was willing to stand up to anybody, including the richest man in the world.Another said that if Reform were to be treated as a serious political outfit - and remember, Nigel Farage has said he wants to win the next general election - that means robustly and consistently rejecting any association with Robinson, whatever the consequences.The one politician to attract some praise from Elon Musk, for now at least, is the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, for her calls for a public inquiry into child sexual abuse.Badenoch sees the scandal as a case study in what she sees as our broken politics.For Badenoch, 2025 will be a crucial year as she fights to rebuild her party and fights for attention – not easy, when Nigel Farage is around.She got yet another taste of that over Christmas in a very public row with him over party membership numbers: Badenoch suggested Reform's claim on Boxing Day to have overtaken the Tories' membership numbers were "fake" as their tally was automatically rising.
Reform invited journalists to verify that this was not the case and the Financial Times among others concluded there was "strong evidence" the party's tally was accurate. In the coming weeks, we can expect to hear from Badenoch about the so-called Policy Commissions she is setting up, and who will lead them.It will be worth keeping an eye too on the man she beat to the leadership, Robert Jenrick, who hasn't exactly gone quietly.He is her shadow justice secretary but his willingness to carry on campaigning almost as if the leadership race was still on is irking some senior Tories, who want him to stay in his lane on policy and not stray all over the place talking about whatever he likes.As for the prime minister, a bruising first six months into office and with noises off at home and abroad, his big hope is delivery.He is forgoing the usual new year big picture speech as his team feel he did just that with his big speech last month. Instead, he is focusing on a specific promise: getting hospital waiting lists down in England.He will do similar style events and visits in the coming weeks on the government's other big promises.So here goes with politics in 2025.We are not even a week in and it is proving lively already.