LONDON — Brexiteer Nigel Farage denied Tuesday that he’s actively seeking donations to his Reform UK party from Elon Musk — but confirmed he won’t say no if some cash does come along.
Westminster has been abuzz with speculation this week that the tech entrepreneur-turned-Donald Trump adviser could open his checkbook to help Reform UK, which is gunning for the governing Labour Party after eating into the Conservative vote at this year’s general election.
The Times cited “leading businessmen and Conservative Party officials” speculating that Musk — who has repeatedly feuded with Britain’s Labour government — could hand over as much as $100 million to Reform.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 Tuesday, the Reform UK leader dismissed the report as “entirely theoretical” and “pure speculation.”
Farage said the story was “complete news to me, I’ve heard nothing of the kind like this.”
And he claimed that he had never discussed money with Musk: “I’ve never solicited a donation from him, and one has never been offered.”
Either way, Farage argued that U.K. rules make a donation to his right-wing challenger party through the British arm of the X social media giant Musk owns unlikely.
“The Electoral Commission would take a view that a donation that came from a company would have to be proportionate to the size of the company in this country,” he said. “And so the idea that X Corp could give $100 million to any political party, I think, is, frankly, for the birds.”
Nevertheless, Farage said “of course I’d accept money” — and reeled off a few potential uses for it.
Supporters would be “over the moon” to have more funds, he said. “We are a very, very slim, thin outfit, performing amazingly well on small resources,” he said of Reform UK. “More money would make us more competitive.”
Help from Musk would, he said, go towards employing “a network of professional agents across the country to help our volunteers campaign, to vet people.”
Farage was asked last week about support Musk — tapped up to lead a government efficiency drive under Trump — could provide ahead of the next election. “Well, that’s what friends are for, isn’t it?,” he told journalists.
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