Elon Musk has once again entered the British political fray, this time promoting a new right-wing party, Advance UK, while criticizing the leader of the rapidly growing and influential Reform UK party, Nigel Farage.
Musk recently posted on X: Go with @_AdvanceUK, Ben [Habib] and Tommy [Robinson] for the real change that’s needed to save Britain!" In another post he said, "Advance UK will actually drive change. Farage is weak sauce who will do nothing."
Earlier this month, he addressed tens of thousands in London at the "Unite the Kingdom" rally organized by the controversial right-winger Tommy Robinson. The billionaire joined the march by video link and condemned the left as "the party of murder."
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The billionaire also took aim at the man who could be Britain's next prime minister, and claimed Nigel Farage "doesn’t have what it takes." That was before the birth of Advance UK. More recently, he said, "There needs to be massive government reform in Britain and the people need to be in charge, not some bureaucracy that doesn’t care."
The right-leaning party, which is close to officially registering, is led by Ben Habib, a former co-deputy chairman of Reform UK. "The two-party system is dead," Habib said. "The Conservatives and Labour Party have had their chance, and now the people want something new."
"You clearly don’t have a two-party system," said Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society think tank. However, he asked: "Will this system produce a majority government and whether, for example, at the end of the process it delivers a main opposition party."
Part of the fragmentation of British politics is the widespread disgust of political leaders. Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, all received unfavorable views between 52% and 68%, according to data from polling organization YouGov.
Despite the negative view of Farage, Reform UK leads in the polls in the event of a general election, according to the polling company Ipsos. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Reform will win at the next election.
"If there was an election tomorrow, then it would likely win," Mendoza says. However, we don’t know when the next election will be, which makes it near impossible to predict at this stage, he says. "The golden law of British politics is you can’t predict the vote that far ahead."
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When asked why Advance UK is needed when Farage's party is far ahead in the polls, Habib said, "Reform will not deliver. It stands for nothing. It is a populist party without a political philosophy and without intellectual heft or capability," Habib said, claiming "Farage has a patriotic persona, but he is nothing more than a political expedient. He would be worse than [former Prime Minister] Boris Johnson."
Nevertheless, it doesn’t look like Advance U.K. will split the vote with Reform. According to Mendoza, bringing Robinson into the party may have been a mistake. During the recent rally, some protestors allegedly attacked police officers. "Most people will not like violence at a political rally," he said. "And they won’t support the party."
One of the leading frustrations voters have at the moment is that neither the current government nor the last one has managed to stop the surge of legal and illegal immigration. In fact, it has worsened. Almost 50,000 undocumented immigrants, many seeking asylum, arrived in Britain in the 12 months through June. That’s up from around 39,000 at the same time the previous year, according to government data.
On Saturday, the Daily Telegraph reported that migrants now account for 98% of the latest rise in population. According to the Office for National Statistics, the Telegraph reported, 69.3 million people were estimated to be living in the country in mid-2024, up 755,254 from the same time in 2023.
"We need a holistic solution to reduce immigration," Habib said. He also said borders must be enforced and illegal migrants deported. Worse still, those asylum-seekers are living in hotels at taxpayers’ expense of £5.8 million a day ($7.4 million).
"We need a holistic solution to reduce immigration," Habib said. He also agrees that borders must be enforced, and illegal migrants deported. Worse still, those asylum seekers are living in hotels at the taxpayers’ expense of £5.8 million per day ($7.4 million).
Earlier this summer, protests over asylum hotels erupted in Epping, southeast England. Separately, Farage suspended one of his local councilors over accusations of racism during the demonstration.
Elon Musk responded to Farage's suspending the council member on X. He wrote: "Farage is weak, runny sauce. He won’t let Reform even stand up for their own people, e.g. punishing their Epping member, and he will change nothing of significance politically."
And according to recent polls, people in the U.K. would almost certainly say some real change is needed, especially regarding the lack of free speech. Earlier this year, Irish comedian Graham Linehan was met by armed police at Heathrow Airport after making online comments about transgender people. Such incidents appear to be fast becoming the norm.
Yet despite Musk's criticism, a new opinion poll released on Friday in the U.K. by YouGov showed Farage's Reform UK on target to deliver a massive defeat of Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his ruling Labour Party if an election were to be held.
Farage was quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying, "The growth of the party has been astonishing," noting, "we're now coming for Labour."
