Elon Musk TURNS on Nigel Farage and says ‘Reform needs a new leader’ – after disagreements over Tommy Robinson

Expert analysis by The Sun's political editor Harry Cole

So is the Nigel Farage and Elon Musk bromance over?

Just two weeks ago Nigel Farage was in Florida potentially courting a hundred million dollar donation for Reform - if it could be done legally - from the world's richest man.

They found kindred spirits in their support for Donald Trump.

They were posing for photos at Mar-a-Lago in Florida - Trump's country retreat where he seems to be preparing for the for the White House.

But today, they've fallen out.

Elon Musk has taken to his own platform, X, to say that Nigel Farage doesn't have what it takes to be the leader of Reform.

Now, what's happened?

Essentially this has come down to Tommy Robinson - the far-right agitator - and an explosion of stories and discussion over the festive period about Muslim grooming gangs in northern British towns.

Now, this scandal has been running for decades in the United Kingdom, but it's found a fresh impetus in the fact that Donald Trump's key supporter Elon Musk has leapt on this issue and have been hammering Keir Starmer and Labour over it for days and days and days on X.

Nigel Farage was out and about this morning saying he doesn't necessarily agree with with Musk, his super fan, his new best friend, on Tommy Robinson.

Nigel Farage spent years distancing Reform, the Brexit party, UKIP, all of his previous parties from Tommy Robinson and the EDL and his supporters.

He doesn't he doesn't allow their supporters to join Reform and he wants nothing to do with them.

But Elon Musk has taken up on himself, incorrectly, to say that Tommy Robinson is a political prisoner, he's been locked up, not for contempt of court, but as a political prisoner for "blowing the whistle", so he says, on these grooming gangs.

Now, that's not strictly true.

Nigel Farage has come out and very clearly said this morning on the BBC that he was going to take Musk aside at Trump's inauguration in a couple of weeks and say 'look, you're wrong on this'.

As a free speech absolutist, Farage defended Musk, he said it was "cool" for Reform that Musk, the man that blasts rockets into space, has made the Tesla car, has a load of other companies, it was "cool" for young voters that Musk was interested in Reform.

Well, that's blown up in his face today.

Now, look in the short term it looks quite embarrassing for Farage.

He can kiss goodbye to a hundred million pound donation.

He's come out and tweeted back saying 'Look oh, well, I disagree on a point of principle on this, on Tommy Robinson'.

Labour supporters are all over it saying how amusing it is.

There's also a lesson there really for Farage: Careful what you do, suck perhaps with a slightly longer spoon, especially when the person you're getting into bed with is a notoriously fickle billionaire who doesn't really perhaps know what he's talking about when it comes to British politics like he does when it comes to pulling giant rockets out of space with chopsticks, so to speak.

So a bit of a bit of a backfiring there.

But in the long run, I do think it might not necessarily be as bad for Nigel Farage as it first seems and the fact that if he's able to say 'look I'm not gonna give him my principles, I don't like Tommy Robinson, I think the EDL is scum, I think they are far-right agitators who I want nothing to do with' that would help him in his ultimate goal which, don't forget, is to become the prime minister in 2030 or at least win hundreds of seats.

He won't be able to do that from a far-right position, you win politics by bringing as many people into the tent as possible and Tommy Robinson, despite what you might see on Twitter or X or Facebook or social media, remains one of the most divisive and toxic characters in British public life.

So, a bit of an awkward one for Nigel Farage today, but in the long run might not hurt his ultimate goal of taking Reform into the Tory heartlands and winning over millions more voters in 2029.

However, there's another lesson I think for Farage here in that to just be careful quite how quickly you make friends with people.

Obviously he's sort of all in on Donald Trump now, Donald Trump seems to be a little bit more moderate, seems to be a little calmer, we're seeing a slightly different Donald Trump, but lots of British voters remember the chaos frankly of the four years he was in the White House.

And if the Trump romance, bromance, friendship goes wrong for Farage as well, you might think 'once bitten twice shy' he perhaps should have been a little bit more careful with who he who he gets into bed.

So a tricky day for Reform, but a little bit embarrassing and some lessons learned, I think for the man that really is trying to paint himself as potentially the next British Prime Minister, but certainly the official leader of the opposition in the United Kingdom - just be careful who your friends are.

Tommy Robinson has been jailed for 18 months after showing a film containing slurs about a Syrian refugee.

The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, appeared at Woolwich Crown Court after breaching a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating false claims about a then-schoolboy.

Far-right activist Robinson was accused of being in contempt of court over having "published, caused, authorised or procured" a film titled Silenced, which contained the libellous allegations.

Contempt of court is a legal term that describes behaviour that interferes with the justice process or risks unfairly influencing a court case, according to .

The Solicitor General said he "knowingly" breached the order on four occasions.

Robinson breached a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating false claims about then-schoolboy Jamal Hijazi, who successfully sued him for libel.

The Solicitor General issued the first contempt claim against Robinson in June 2024, claiming he "knowingly" breached the order on four occasions.

In court last year, Robinson admitted the charges.

Lawyers previously told a judge that the breaches included Robinson having "published, caused, authorised or procured" a film titled Silenced, which contained the libellous allegations, in May 2023.

The second claim was issued in August, concerning six further breaches, including playing the film to a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London earlier this year, which lawyers for the Solicitor General told an earlier hearing was a "flagrant" breach of the court order.

Aidan Eardley KC, for the Solicitor General, said the film was viewed "very extensively", including being seen by 2.2 million people after being reposted by Andrew Tate.

And, he said in written submissions that by the time the second claim was issued, it "had received 44m views on X alone".

He claimed that all of the paragraphs of the injunction were breached "at one point or another" by the film.

The sentence for contempt of court can be up to two years imprisonment at the Crown Court or one month at the magistrates' court.

Silenced is a film which contains the false and libellous allegations about Mr Hijazi which Robinson was banned from repeating.

Sasha Wass KC, for Robinson, told the court that the film's production was funded by Infowars, a company run by American Alex Jones, who has claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.

The activist played the film to a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London.

It also remains pinned to the top of Robinson's profile on social media site X, while he also repeated the claims in three interviews between February and June 2023.