(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Keir Starmer got a taste of the topsy-turvy politics of the coming Trump era as his government spent the weekend defending itself from attacks from Elon Musk, only to see the billionaire provocateur turn on his erstwhile British ally, Nigel Farage.
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Musk, the world’s richest person and a key adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump, has been a fierce critic of Starmer and his left-of-center Labour Party since it swept to power in July. But on Sunday he took aim at Farage, posting on X that the Reform UK leader “doesn’t have what it takes” and should be replaced.
It was an abrupt U-turn by the Tesla Inc. chief executive, who has heaped praise on Farage and said only Reform, a populist right-wing party, can “save” Britain. Both men recently met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, with Farage touting a possible donation by Musk to his party.
It also stepped up Musk’s intervention in British political affairs. He has attacked Starmer over the response to summer riots that engulfed the UK, claimed that “civil war is inevitable” in Britain and in recent days accused the prime minister of being “complicit in the rape of Britain,” a reference to when Starmer was chief prosecutor for the UK during a child sex-abuse scandal.
He has also used inflammatory language to criticize safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who has rejected calls from Reform UK and Conservative lawmakers for a government-led inquiry into the historic grooming gangs scandal. On Sunday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting described the comments as “a disgraceful smear.”
“It’s all very easy to sit there and fire off something in haste and click send, when people like Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips have done the hard yards of actually locking up wife beaters, rapists, paedophiles. Those are good people with great records outside politics,” Streeting said in a BBC Television interview.
The UK held an independent inquiry into the sexual abuse of children which proposed recommendations in 2022, including tighter rules on online platforms. Its lead author, professor Alexis Jay, warned against the “politicisation” of the subject, the BBC reported Monday. A government spokesperson said it was “working at pace” to implement her inquiry’s proposals.
Musk offered no explanation for his shift over Farage, the Brexit mastermind who has been hailed as a “friend” by Trump, but his post came after the Reform leader appeared to distance himself from some of Musk’s comments about British political figures. In an interview broadcast on BBC on Sunday, Farage said that while Musk is “allowed to have an opinion,” he doesn’t “agree with everything he stands for.”
Musk has called for far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, to be freed from prison where he serving a sentence for contempt of court. Farage has ruled out Robinson joining Reform, and he repeated his position after Musk attacked his leadership of the party.
Musk’s public support for Robinson had already set off alarms among senior politicians on the UK right. Several prominent Brexit-supporting politicians with links to Trump last week warned their Republican counterparts against following Musk’s endorsement, saying it was a step too far, according to people familiar with the views of both the Conservative and Reform UK parties.
Musk has also endorsed the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party ahead of federal elections next month.
For Starmer, the clash with Musk has added to a problematic first six months in power that has seen Labour lose support in opinion polls and his own approval ratings slip deep into negative territory.
An early decision to shore up the public finances by stripping away winter fuel payments from the elderly and a subsequent tax-raising budget have drawn the ire of pensioners, farmers and businesses. Economic growth, which matched the best in the Group of Seven in the first half of 2024, has ground to a halt.
On Monday, Starmer will respond to calls to start delivering the improvements that Labour has promised by setting out how the government plans to meet its target that most National Health Service patients wait no longer than 18 weeks for elective treatment by the end of the current parliament.
“This year, you’ll be hearing a lot more from the government about what we are doing. Not just what we’re saying, what we are doing to turn round what is objectively the worst crisis in the history of the NHS,” Streeting said on Sunday.
(Updates with Alexis Jay comment and government response in seventh paragraph.)
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