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Elon Musk turns on fellow Trump ally Nigel Farage in a war of words over far-right activist Tommy Robinson
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Nigel Farage has hit back after Elon Musk turned on him to suggest that Reform UK needs a new leader, amid a row between the pair over jailed far-right political activist Tommy Robinson.
The billionaire entrepreneur and Trump ally warned suddenly on Sunday that Mr Farage “does not have what it takes” to lead the party and instead endorsed Reform MP Rupert Lowe to replace him – just hours after Mr Farage had hailed Mr Musk as a “hero”.
In response, Mr Farage said: “Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree. My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.”
Mr Musk, who is reportedly mulling giving Reform a multimillion-pound donation, has been calling for a new government in the UK and demanding an inquiry into past grooming gang cases.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer is expected to promise millions of extra NHS appointments in a bid to slash waiting times for treatment to 18 weeks by the next general election.
Andy Burnham has said he would support a new national inquiry into grooming gangs if the government launched one after pressure from Elon Musk.
The Greater Manchester mayor pointed to an ongoing review into the scandal in Manchester which he launched after being elected in 2017.
“Nobody has turned away, we have faced up directly to the failings and, as a result of the review… there have been arrests, charges and convictions,” Mr Burnham said.
But, with the Conservatives, Reform UK and the Tesla tycoon all piling pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to launch a national inquiry into grooming gangs, Mr Burnham told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I wouldn’t stand against a further national review if that was deemed necessary.”
Critics of recent calls for a new national inquiry have said there already has already been one, conducted by Professor Alexis Jay, with none of the 2022 recommendations having been implemented.
Archie Mitchell and David Maddox have more details in this report:
The Greater Manchester mayor pointed to an ongoing review into the scandal in Manchester which he launched after being elected in 2017, but said he would support a national inquiry if the government deemed one necessary
Health minister Karin Smyth vowed that the government will meet the target of getting 92 per cent of people waiting for pre-planned care seen within 18 weeks.
Asked on ITV’s Good Morning Britain whether the target will be met, she replied: “We will. It’s an ambitious target, and that’s why the Prime Minister has made sure that we will all be working to deliver that. That’s our commitment to the British people.
“We know that those six million people waiting for those seven-and-a-half million appointments is one of the biggest issues facing people. It’s the biggest issue to come out of the election, and that’s why we’re able to secure that extra funding in the Budget.
“That’s why we’re announcing this plan today to have both more capacity through these surgical hubs and these diagnostic centres, so that people can have tests more quickly, but also, crucially, to improve the technology in the NHS app, so that those 30 million people (who have) already got the app use it much more.
“And that hospitals in particular make sure that they are giving information to people about where they are on that list. And we’re also looking at if there are quicker ways to get seen (and) more information to people about what they can do, perhaps when they’re on those lists.
“So it’s a really ambitious delivery plan, because, as you rightly say, we will be judged – we have said that we will commit to getting these waiting lists down to 18 weeks.”
In a new intervention on X, Elon Musk has shared a poll asking whether the United States “should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”.
US president-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to hand Mr Musk a new role in his administration, campaigned on a pledge to end foreign wars.
Reacting to Mr Musk’s bizarre intervention, former No 10 adviser Theo Bertram said: “Trump needs to be taken seriously. Musk does not.”
Keir Starmer will take on the attacks against him by Elon Musk and rightwing populists behind Donald Trump, in a key speech on Monday.
The prime minister is due to address NHS reform at a hospital in the south east of England this morning, but will also for the first time since the summer riots seriously address the social media campaign against his government being orchestrated by the tech billionaire.
It is understood that Sir Keir will be remaking the case for sensible centre ground politics after lurid claims that he and his ministers were “complicit” in “genocidal mass rape”, made by Musk. The wild claims were in reference to the decision not to hold a public inquiry into the mass grooming gangs operating in the north of England where white girls were allegedly targeted and raped by Asian men.
The X owner has latched on to the issue, even though there has already been an inquiry, in what seems to be a rightwing attempt to stir up race division. Separately, Musk has openly backed the far right AfD in Germany.
Our political editor David Maddox has more in this report:
Keir Starmer will use a speech on the future of the NHS to launch a fightback against the tech billionaire’s attacks on him and the UK
Pollster Luke Tryl, UK director at the think-tank More in Common, said: “Leave aside everything else, this shows Musk has no handle on UK politics.
“Absent Farage, Reform would have been a postmark in history post-election and likely failed to win seats. Like him or not, and many don’t, he has an ability to connect with people most politicians can’t reach.”
And a former Farage aide and Breitbart editor Raheem Kassam responded to Mr Musk saying “you are a f****** moron”.
A Washington source told The Independent that Elon Musk was “having a tantrum because Nigel pushed back on him” over Tommy Robinson.
“He does this constantly here, too,” the source added.
Here was Nigel Farage’s careful response when asked by the BBC about Elon Musk’s claims that Labour minister Jess Phillips – who has long advocated for survivors of abuse – is a “rape genocide apologist”, just hours before the SpaceX founder warned that he “does not have what it takes”.
A Labour minister has said Elon Musk is “wrong” about Sir Keir Starmer’s record tackling grooming gangs and his calls for Jess Phillips to be in prison, claiming that if he wanted to help, the billionaire could use X to tackle misogyny.
Health minister Karin Smyth told Times Radio: “It would be more helpful if Mr Musk wanted to use his platform to support victims. It is a shocking crime. We know from Alexis Jay’s report that there are millions of people living with the consequences of decades of abuse in this country and those are the people we should be thinking about and supporting.
“He could use his platform to educate his audience about misogyny, about the evils of the crime. It’s clearly, as Alexis Jay reports, a long-standing problem and using that to, yes, expose the evilness of that would be a more helpful thing.”
Elon Musk has suggested that Reform UK needs to replace Nigel Farage with a new leader amid a row between the pair over jailed far-right political activist Tommy Robinson.
The Tesla tycoon said Mr Farage, who founded the party and is credited with its recent surge in the polls, “does not have what it takes”.
His call for change comes as a bitter blow after days of Mr Farage fawning over the world’s richest man, describing him as “a hero” and claiming he makes Reform “look cool”.
Just hours after Mr Farage was on TV praising Mr Musk, the billionaire took to his social media platform X (Twitter) to declare: “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
He then appeared to endorse Rupert Lowe, one of the party’s five MPs, as a replacement.
Archie Mitchell and David Maddox have the full report:
The Tesla tycoon is reported to be considering donation of up to $100m to party
Good morning, and thanks for joining us on The Independent’s politics live blog. We’ll be bringing you the latest updates from Westminster in the wake of Elon Musk’s surprise attack on Nigel Farage, just hours after the Reform leader called him a “hero”.
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