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A co-chair of the Conservative Party has accused Elon Musk of attempting to “buy” Reform UK following reports the tech tycoon is planning to gift Nigel Farage’s party $100m (£78m).

In a recording of a video call with Tory activists heard by Sky News, Lord Johnson of Lainston said it was “extraordinary” that Mr Musk, the owner of X and Tesla and the world’s richest man, was “basically buying one of the political parties here”.

He said Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, should “be frankly embarrassed about that”, saying he risked becoming a “puppet of a foreign politician” if he accepted any donations from Mr Musk.

Lord Johnson’s comments, which were made during a video call with Conservatives Abroad earlier this week, coincide with Kemi Badenoch’s trip to the US, where she hopes to build ties with the Republican Party ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The Tory leader is set to hold meetings with Republicans on Capitol Hill, but it is unclear whether she will meet with president-elect Trump or his top advisers.

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The reports about Mr Musk’s potential donation to Reform first emerged in The Times. The newspaper said Tory officials were concerned Mr Musk was preparing to give £78m to Mr Farage – an ally of Mr Trump – as a “f*** you Starmer payment”.

The newspaper reported that if Mr Musk does decide to make the donation, he would do so through the British arm of his social media firm X, formerly Twitter, to circumvent UK rules that prevent foreign donations to a political party.

Mr Farage has dismissed suggestions he had received any donations from Mr Musk, telling BBC Radio 4’s PM this week that he had discussed “nothing of the kind” with the tech billionaire.

The Reform leader said that while he was a “huge admirer of Elon Musk”, who will co-lead a new department of government efficiency when Mr Trump assumes office, he had “never solicited a donation from him, and one has never been offered”.

However, he did indicate Reform would be willing to accept money if Mr Musk decided to offer it, saying: “Would I accept money, given that we’re up against two big parties who are very heavily funded, and we scrape by mostly on our burgeoning membership fees? Yes, of course, I’d accept money.”

Lord Johnson, who was appointed co-chair of the Conservatives alongside Nigel Huddleston after the election, said he found it “bizarre for the party that purports to be the party of Great Britain…not be willing to become the puppet of a foreign politician”.

“It’s completely extraordinary that Elon Musk is basically buying one of the political parties here,” he continued.

“I would have thought Nigel Farage should be frankly embarrassed about that and it will backfire significantly on them in terms of their core voter base, their ambitions and how they manage their affairs – so I think this is extremely bad for Farage to become a boy puppet of Elon Musk; it’s just something I’m quite baffled by.”

Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Pic: Reuters

His comments appear to signal a shift in tone in the Tories’ approach to dealing with Mr Musk, who has indicated strong support for Mr Farage while making disparaging comments about Sir Keir Starmer.

Just this week, Tory shadow minister and former party chair Richard Holden said he would welcome a donation from Mr Musk on the grounds that support for Mr Farage’s party would only serve to help Labour.

“I’d say exactly the same to Elon Musk, and say look if you want to see Keir Starmer out of office, then more broadly if it’s yourself or anybody else, you’ve got to support the Conservatives,” he told GB News.

Ms Badenoch has also described herself as a “huge fan” of Mr Musk, saying he was “a fantastic thing for freedom of speech”.

Lord Johnson said he believed the reports about a potential donation from Mr Musk to the Conservatives’ rivals was “frustrating because it takes a lot of oxygen and I’m very aware of the fact that people are talking about Reform today and they’re not talking about Kemi Badenoch and the new Conservative agenda”.

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“We have to make sure that we get the attention and we dominate people’s sort of attention span in order to make sure that they start looking back at us again rather than a frankly unrealistic alternative,” he said.

As well as causing issues for the Conservatives with his support for Reform, Mr Musk has also had run-ins with the Labour Party, initially over Sir Keir’s response to the riots this summer.

The tech tycoon branded the prime minster “two tier Keir” over his response to the disorder, suggesting he oversaw two-tier policing in the UK – the theory propagated among some on the right that some protests and demonstrations are dealt with more harshly than others.

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More recently, Mr Musk was accused of “interference” in British politics by Labour minister Alex Davies-Jones after he labelled the UK a “tyrannical police state” on his social media platform X.

He also reposted a petition signed by nearly three million people calling for another general election just five months after the one in July.

“I would counteract Elon Musk’s claims that he does not agree with interference in foreign governments and I believe he shouldn’t be doing the same,” Ms Davies-Jones told the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge last month.

A Reform UK spokesperson said: “This leaked recording is the latest demonstration of a Conservative Party in a state of total panic about the momentum of Reform UK in British politics.”

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Why Boris’s best mate is off to Reform

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Why Boris's best mate is off to Reform

👉Listen to Politics at Sam and Anne’s on your podcast app👈       

Former Conservative chairman and friend of Boris Johnson – Sir Jake Berry – is defecting to Reform UK, causing more problems for Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

On today’s episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy discuss if his defection will divide parts of Reform policy.

Elsewhere, the Anglo-French summit gets under way, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer hoping to announce a migration deal with French President Emmanuel Macron to deter small boat crossings.

Plus, chatter around Whitehall that No10 are considering a pre-summer reshuffle, but will it have any value?

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

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Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

Australia to test CBDCs, stablecoins in next stage of crypto play

The trial is part of Project Acacia, an initiative from the RBA exploring how digital money and tokenization could support financial markets in Australia.

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Starmer and Macron agree need for ‘new deterrent’ to stop small boat crossings

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Starmer and Macron agree need for 'new deterrent' to stop small boat crossings

Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed the need for a “new deterrent” to deter small boats crossings in the Channel, Downing Street has said.

The prime minister met Mr Macron this afternoon as part of the French president’s state visit to the UK, which began on Tuesday.

High up the agenda for the two leaders is the need to tackle small boat crossings in the Channel, which Mr Macron said yesterday was a “burden” for both the UK and France.

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The small boats crisis is a pressing issue for the prime minister, given that more than 20,000 migrants crossed the English Channel to the UK in the first six months of this year – a rise of almost 50% on the number crossing in 2024.

Sir Keir is hoping he can reach a deal for a one-in one-out return treaty with France, ahead of the UK-France summit on Thursday, which will involve ministerial teams from both nations.

The deal would see those crossing the Channel illegally sent back to France in exchange for Britain taking in any asylum seeker with a family connection in the UK.

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However, it is understood the deal is still in the balance, with some EU countries unhappy about France and the UK agreeing on a bilateral deal.

French newspaper Le Monde reports that up to 50 small boat migrants could be sent back to France each week, starting from August, as part of an agreement between Sir Keir and Mr Macron.

A statement from Downing Street said: “The prime minister met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Downing Street this afternoon.

“They reflected on the state visit of the president so far, agreeing that it had been an important representation of the deep ties between our two countries.

“Moving on to discuss joint working, they shared their desire to deepen our partnership further – from joint leadership in support of Ukraine to strengthening our defence collaboration and increasing bilateral trade and investment.”

It added: “The leaders agreed tackling the threat of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared priority that requires shared solutions.

“The prime minister spoke of his government’s toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats.

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“The two leaders agreed on the need to go further and make progress on new and innovative solutions, including a new deterrent to break the business model of these gangs.”

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, seized on the statement to criticise Labour for scrapping the Conservatives’ Rwanda plan, which the Tories claim would have sent asylum seekers “entering the UK illegally” to Rwanda.

He said in an online post: “We had a deterrent ready to go, where every single illegal immigrant arriving over the Channel would be sent to Rwanda.

“But Starmer cancelled this before it had a chance to start.

“Now, a year later, he’s realised he made a massive mistake. That’s why numbers have surged and this year so far has been the worst in history for illegal channel crossings.

“Starmer is weak and incompetent and he’s lost control of our borders.”

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