Nigel Farage and Reform party treasurer Nick Candy meet Elon Musk at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort
Nigel Farage and his party treasurer have met with Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for the first time since rumours surfaced of a multi-million donation from the tech tycoon.
The Reform UK leader and Nick Candy, the billionaire husband of singer Holly Valance who will take up the fundraising role for Mr Farage’s party in the new year, met on Monday 16 December, the party said.
The meeting comes following reports that Mr Musk was considering donating £78m to Mr Farage – an ally of Mr Trump – as a “f*** you Starmer payment”.
The Times 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.
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Soon after his election victory, president-elect Trump confirmed that Mr Musk, the Tesla and X owner who is also the world’s richest man, will co-lead the new department of government efficiency, known as DOGE for short.
Both Mr Farage and Mr Candy have dismissed the reports of a potential donation, with the Reform leader telling Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby that it was a “story without any basis in fact”.
“Elon Musk is very supportive of what Reform is trying to do, supportive of me personally. And we’ve got the connections with him, and Nick’s got good connections with him as well.
“He’s giving us political support. We have, at this stage, neither solicited or been offered donations.”
However, the pair have both said they would not turn down a donation from Mr Musk if it was offered.
Following the meeting, Mr Farage and Mr Candy said: “We had a great meeting with Elon Musk for an hour yesterday.
“We learned a great deal about the Trump ground game and will have ongoing discussions on other areas.
“We only have one more chance left to save the West and we can do great things together.
“Our thanks also to President Trump for allowing us to use Mar-a-Lago for this historic meeting. The special relationship is alive and well.”
The news that Reform has met with Mr Musk could spark concerns about foreign influence in domestic politics.
Earlier this month Sky News heard a recording of a video call between the Conservative Party co-chair, Lord Johnson, and Tory activists in which he accused Mr Musk of attempting to “buy” Reform UK.
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”.
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And he said Mr Farage should “be frankly embarrassed about that”, saying he risked becoming a “puppet of a foreign politician” if he accepted any donations from Mr Musk.
In a sign of the tension between the Conservatives and their Reform rivals, Lord Johnson said he believed the reports about a potential donation from Mr Musk to Reform were “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”.
“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.
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Laws may need to be bolstered to crack down on exploitation of child ‘influencers’, senior MP suggests
Laws may need to be strengthened to crack down on the exploitation of child “influencers”, a senior Labour MP has warned.
Chi Onwurah, chair of the science, technology and innovation committee, said parts of the Online Safety Act – passed in October 2023 – may already be “obsolete or inadequate”.
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Experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of provision in industry laws for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media when compared to child actors and models.
This has led to some children advertising in their underwear on social media, one expert has claimed.
Those working in more traditional entertainment fields are safeguarded by performance laws, which strictly govern the hours a minor can work, the money they earn and who they are accompanied by.
The Child Influencer Project, which has curated the world’s first industry guidelines for the group, has warned of a “large gap in UK law” which is not sufficiently filled by new online safety legislation.
Official portrait of Chi Onwurah.
Pic: UK Parlimeant
The group’s research found that child influencers could be exposed to as many as 20 different risks of harm, including to dignity, identity, family life, education, and their health and safety.
Ms Onwurah told Sky News there needs to be a “much clearer understanding of the nature of child influencers ‘work’ and the legal and regulatory framework around it”.
She said: “The safety and welfare of children are at the heart of the Online Safety Act and rightly so.
“However, as we know in a number of areas the act may already be obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government.”
Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for science, innovation and technology, agreed that regulations “need to keep pace with the times”, with child influencers on social media “protected in the same way” as child actors or models.
“Liberal Democrats would welcome steps to strengthen the Online Safety Act on this front,” she added.
‘Something has to be done’
MPs warned in 2022 that the government should “urgently address the gap in UK child labour and performance regulation that is leaving child influencers without protection”.
They asked for new laws on working hours and conditions, a mandate for the protection of the child’s earnings, a right to erasure and to bring child labour arrangements under the oversight of local authorities.
However, Dr Francis Rees, the principal investigator for the Child Influencer Project, told Sky News that even after the implementation of the Online Safety Act, “there’s still a lot wanting”.
“Something has to be done to make brands more aware of their own duty of care towards kids in this arena,” she said.
Dr Rees added that achieving performances from children on social media “can involve extremely coercive and disruptive practices”.
“We simply have to do more to protect these children who have very little say or understanding of what is really happening. Most are left without a voice and without a choice.”
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The researcher pointed to one particular instance, in which children were advertising an underwear brand on social media.
She said: “The kids in the company’s own marketing material or their own media campaigns are either pulling up the band of the underwear underneath their clothing, or they’re holding the underwear up while they’re fully clothed.
“But whenever you look at any of the sponsored content produced by families with children – mum, dad, and child are in their underwear.”
Dr Rees said it is “night and day” in terms of how companies are behaving when they have responsibility for the material, versus “the lack of responsibility once they hand it over to parents with kids”.
One of Arizona’s crypto reserve bills has been passed by the House and is now one successful vote away from heading to the governor’s desk for official approval.
Arizona’s Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Bill (SB 1373) was approved on April 17 by the House Committee of the Whole, which involves 60 House members weighing in on the bill before a third and final reading and a full floor vote.
SB 1373 seeks to establish a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund made up of digital assets seized through criminal proceedings to be managed by the state’s treasurer.
Arizona’s treasurer would be permitted to invest up to 10% of the fund’s total monies in any fiscal year in digital assets. The treasurer would also be able to loan the fund’s assets in order to increase returns, provided it doesn’t increase financial risks.
However, a Senate-approved SB 1373 may be set back by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, who recently pledged to veto all bills until the legislature passes a bill for disability funding.
Hobbs also has a history of vetoing bills before the House and has vetoed 15 bills sent to her desk this week alone.
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SB 1373 has been passing through Arizona’s legislature alongside the Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (SB 1025), which only includes Bitcoin (BTC).
The bill proposes allowing Arizona’s treasury and state retirement system to invest up to 10% of the available funds into Bitcoin.
SB 1025 also passed Arizona’s House Committee of the Whole on April 1 and is awaiting a full floor vote.
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Utah passed Bitcoin legislation on March 7 but scrapped the cornerstone provision establishing the Bitcoin reserve in the final reading.
The Texas Senate passed a Bitcoin reserve bill on March 6, while a similar bill recently passed through New Hampshire’s House.
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Slovenia’s Finance Ministry is considering a possible 25% tax on crypto trading profits for residents in the country under a new draft law now open for public consultation.
The bill proposes to tax traders when they sell their cryptocurrency for fiat or pay for goods and services, but crypto-to-crypto and transfers between wallets owned by the same user will be exempt, Slovenia’s Finance Ministry said in an April 17 statement.
Under the proposed legislation, crypto tax will be aligned with existing tax laws. Slovenia taxpayers will be required to keep a record of all their transactions for annual tax returns. The tax base would be calculated on profits by subtracting the purchase price from the sale price.
In a statement to the Slovenia Times, finance minister Klemen Boštjančič said it’s unreasonable that crypto trading for individuals isn’t currently taxed in the country.
“The goal of taxation of crypto assets is not to generate tax revenue, but we find it illogical and unreasonable that one of the most speculative financial instruments is not taxed at all,” he said in a statement translated from Slovenian.
New tax could stifle crypto in Slovenia, lawmaker says
Jernej Vrtovec, a member of Slovenia’s national assembly and New Slovenia opposition party, slammed the proposal in an April 16 statement to X, arguing it could stifle crypto growth in the country.
“Slovenia has the opportunity to become a crypto-friendly country, but with the government’s proposals, we will miss the train again,” he said in a post also translated from Slovenian.
“With excessive taxation, we will once again see young people and capital fleeing abroad. Taxes should encourage, not stifle.”
The proposal is open to public consultation until May 5. If Slovenian lawmakers pass the bill, it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.
Slovenia introduced a 10% tax on crypto withdrawals and payments in 2023, but capital gains from occasional crypto trading are not taxed, according to the crypto tax platform Token Tax.
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Crypto activity can also currently be exempt from tax if it’s considered a hobby. Business activity, such as mining or staking, is subject to income tax.
A previous bill proposed in April 2022 planned to levy a 5% tax on profits over 10,000 euros ($11,372), but it was never passed into law.
Slovenia issued the first digital sovereign bond in the European Union on July 25 last year. It had a nominal size of 30 million euros ($32.5 million) with a 3.65% coupon and a maturity date of Nov. 25 that year.
The number of crypto users in Slovenia is projected to reach roughly 98,000 in 2025, according to online data platform Statista, with a penetration rate of 4.6% among its population of 2.12 million people. While the projected revenue for the country’s crypto market is slated to hit $2.8 million.
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