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Elon Musk met Nigel Farage in the US on Monday as the Reform UK leader seeks to bolster ties with the incoming US administration and capitalise on his party’s growing momentum in Britain.
Farage had a one-hour meeting with the tech billionaire and Reform UK’s new treasurer Nick Candy at US president-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Monday, the party said in a statement.
“We learned a great deal about the Trump ground game and will have ongoing discussions on other areas,” Farage and Candy said in a joint statement. “We only have one more chance left to save the west and we can do great things together.”
Musk is set to co-lead a new so-called Department of Government Efficiency and appears to have become deeply involved in Trump’s transition team, holding meetings with world leaders.
Former minister Peter Mandelson, who is in the running to become the next ambassador to the US, has previously urged the UK to use Farage to foster closer ties with Musk, in the face of the billionaire’s criticisms of Sir Keir Starmer’s government and concerns the X boss could undermine official diplomatic channels between the two nations.
Musk, who also leads Tesla and SpaceX, denied a report earlier this month that he was preparing to give a $100mn donation to Farage’s party, though the meeting came after Candy promised to turbo-charge the organisation’s fundraising operations.
Reform declined to comment on whether the men discussed possible donations, and said Farage, Musk and Candy were the only people in attendance at the meeting.
Farage is attempting to transform his political start-up — which won five seats in July’s general election — into a credible vehicle for power by building a ground campaign in areas where the party already has significant support.
These include swaths of northern and eastern England, as well as Wales. The party came second in 98 seats at the UK election, of which 89 were won by Labour.
Candy, a former Tory donor, announced he was joining the party as treasurer last week, and vowed to give at least £1mn of his own money to Reform and raise “tens of millions” more.
When Farage posted on X earlier this month that the party was “building a winning team to change British politics forever”, Musk responded: “When is the first electoral opportunity?”
Farage is hoping Reform will make significant inroads at local elections in May when he believes it will be able to win several hundred council seats and at least one mayoralty.
The party has been buoyed in recent weeks by several high-profile defections from the Conservative party, including former Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns who will run as mayor of Greater Lincolnshire; Tim Montgomerie, the founder of the Conservative Home website; and Rael Braverman, the husband of former home secretary and sitting Tory MP Suella Braverman.
Farage met Musk for the first time in October when he was introduced to the billionaire by Trump, and told the Financial Times that he was impressed by the Tesla chief’s “incredible knowledge” about the UK, “even on farmers and inheritance tax”.
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