A few days ago, the news emerged that Elon Musk was ready to provide 78 million pounds to Reform UK, the latest incarnation of Nigel Farage’s political party (after UKIP and the Brexit Party). Even if Farage denied it, the news caused a scandal both because it seemed to be an explicit case of foreign influence in domestic politics, which is forbidden in most, if not all countries, and secondly because it signalled Musk’s intention to export his “tech takeover” beyond the US and across the pond, to the UK.
Theoretically speaking, since Musk has UK-based companies (such as X/Twitter and Tesla), the first of these concerns would be formally (but not substantially) removed. But that would not alleviate the second concern, namely that Musk will try to take control of the UK political system, as he has done in the US by financing the electoral campaign of Trump and starting to act like a de-facto co-president.
This is not the first time Musk has intervened directly in UK politics. Last summer, he spoke about the “inevitable” civil war in the UK, when violent riots had exploded in the country as a result of the mis-information campaign started after the killing of three innocent girls at a summer camp.
Why is Musk so obsessed with the UK? In our view, the UK represents the paradigm of the liberal system that he is trying to knock down in the US in favour of a tech-led oligarchic regime. He could not tolerate it if the UK, the “the older brother” from which the US originated, were to remind the world what an authentically democratic, liberal and open political system can be. The other paradigmatic country in this regard would be France, but there the situation is precipitating in favour of Marine Le Pen without any need of foreign interference.
How successful is Musk likely to be? A recent poll shows that the Labour party has now fallen to third place, after the new Conservatives led by Kamy Badenock and Reform UK led by Farage. The solid parliamentary majority that Labour currently possesses will ensure a relatively tranquil navigation for PM Starmer, but he should not rest on his laurels.
The mood of the country is low, and without a significant boost to morale, Starmer’s and his government’s popularity may slide further, to a point where it would be hard to re-emerge. While Starmer handled the riots this summer well, by wearing his prosecutor-in-chief hat again, the tax-ridden budget has put him at odds with the productive fabric of the country.
Where is Peter Thiel, Musk’s buddy in the tech-takeover of the US Presidency, in all this? Well, via Palantir Thiel has acquired all the data of NHS patients in the UK by winning a £480m contract to “run the NHS platform”. Not bad, huh? So, it seems that the duo of Musk and Thiel may be ready to replicate their magic of taking over the country by controlling a right-wing populist candidate and its key infrastructure, in this case in healthcare.
In order to prevent this from happening, Starmer needs to up the defence system of the country against “hostile takeovers”, whether domestic or foreign, by reinforcing the laws on political influence, for example by introducing new and more stringent caps and concentration limits. At stake is the survival of the UK’s liberal democracy.
