Elon Musk is back to praising Nigel Farage and people are wondering if the ‘love affair’ is ‘back on’

With Elon Musk making headlines with almost every post to his Twitter/X platform at the moment, we’ll forgive you if you’re struggling to keep up - as after calling for Nigel Farage to step down as Reform UK leader, he now seems to be back in the tech entrepreneur’s good books.

Musk – who sparked speculation that he might provide a substantial donation to Reform after meeting Farage and party treasurer Nick Candy last month - stunned social media users, politicians and commentators alike when he said Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” on Sunday, as the Tesla boss and GB News host shared differing views on far-right criminal Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon).

While Musk has said Robinson should be freed from prison - where he is currently serving time for contempt of court - Farage has distanced himself from the English Defence League founder and said he is “not what we need”.

And this soon prompted the aforementioned tweet in which the SpaceX founder said Reform “needs a new leader”.

Now, though, Musk is back to praising Farage, after the Clacton MP said on his GB News show on Tuesday that “if the government don’t give us a full review, I will raise the money and put it towards a full inquiry, and I mean it”.

It echoes remarks he made to Nick Ferrari on LBC that morning, when he said: “I will have no difficulty in raising the money to do this whatsoever. We’ll appoint independent ex-judges and experts and we would have this out in public.”

And Musk has since welcomed the idea, quote tweeting a GB News clip and simply commenting: “Good.”

Except, one user has asked if this really does mean the two of them are back on friendly terms, given such an inquiry would not have the legal powers afforded to a formal, statutory inquiry:

Another, however, remarked that Farage has “definitely listened” to Musk following the latter’s criticism of his leadership.

Farage’s comments about an inquiry were made ahead of a vote on the government’s Children’s Wellbeing Bill on Wednesday, with the Conservatives tabling an amendment to require a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Starmer has criticised the move and warned it would “kill the legislation”, which includes measures to remove the right for parents to automatically home school their children if that child is subject to a child protection investigation or suspected of being at risk of significant harm.

Reform UK has gone further than the Tories, with their proposed amendment declining to give the bill a second reading because the home secretary “has not launched a UK-wide public inquiry”.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.