More voters think tech tycoon’s comments on grooming gangs are unhelpful than those who back him
More than half of voters think Elon Musk is having a negative effect on British politics following his criticism of Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
The South African-born billionaire has spent much of the past week using his social media platform X to attack Starmer and the Labour government for their opposition to another national inquiry into grooming gangs. He accused Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, of being a “rape genocide apologist” and falsely claimed Starmer was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes”. Despite strong suggestions that Musk is preparing to make a large donation to Reform UK, he also recently tore into Nigel Farage, saying he was not up to the job of leading the party.
In one post on X Musk asked his 212 million followers whether America should “liberate” the UK from its “tyrannical government” under Starmer.
Last week the Financial Times reported that he had been discussing with allies ways to remove Keir Starmer from Downing Street.
But when Opinium asked for views on Musk, it found that 53% of voters believed Musk was having a negative impact on British politics, compared to just 12% who thought he was having a positive one. On his comments about grooming gangs specifically, 47% said they thought Musk was being “unhelpful”, compared to 26% who thought the opposite.
Reform UK supporters were unimpressed by his claim that Farage should stand down as party leader, with 71% saying the Clacton MP was the best leader they could have now.
Adam Drummond, head of political and social research at Opinium, said a “lack of enthusiasm about a foreign billionaire involving himself in British politics” was “one area of agreement” among the public. Farage has said that he disagrees with Musk over his support for far-right activist Tommy Robinson and that he has spoken to Musk since his comments about him not being up to the job. Farage says he does not believe that any lasting damage has been done to their relationship.
Opinium found that the public was split on the issue of holding another national inquiry into grooming gangs, with 36% backing the idea. A total of 28% thought local councils should hold their own inquiries while the government focused on implementing the recommendations of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse that reported in 2022.
Drummond said: “If you ask voters ‘Should there be an inquiry into an important issue’ the answer will be ‘yes’. It sounds like doing something about the problem and doesn’t really consider opportunity costs. So it’s not surprising that the numbers are more nuanced when we put actual courses of action in front of people.”
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Approval of the Labour government’s handling of the issue was a net minus 17%, but approval of the previous Conservative government’s approach was even lower at minus 27%. There was little support for the Tories’ current approach either, which scored a net approval rating of minus 11%.
Opinium surveyed 2,050 UK adults online between 8 and 10 January.
