Musk's endorsement of a fringe right-wing U.K. party risks splitting Farage's vote

Reform U.K. Leader Nigel Farage is warning against potentially handing the Labour government a victory in a consequential byelection following tech billionaire Elon Musk’s tweets in support of a rival right-wing party.

Polls are showing a tight race between Labour candidate and Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Reform’s Robert Kenyon, a plumber who came in second for the seat in Makerfield in 2024. If Burnham wins the election and becomes an MP on June 18, he is widely expected to challenge Prime Minister Kier Starmer, whose grip on power is looking increasingly shaky.

“A vote for me in this byelection campaign is a vote to change Labour,” Burnham said last Friday, launching his campaign in the constituency, which lies between Manchester and Liverpool.

The byelection was actually triggered when Makerfield’s MP resigned, saying he wanted to give Burnham, a former longtime Labour MP, the chance to win the seat and challenge Starmer.

Speaking to London’s Telegraph newspaper, Farage said Burnham would be “delighted” to see Elon Musk promoting Restore Britain, an offshoot of Farage’s party represented by a sole member, Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe.

He said: “Elon Musk has decided he will try to split the right of British politics as best he can. This is supporting a party that’s one man with a social media account. Quite what he’s trying to achieve, I have no idea.”

On Sunday, Musk wrote “Restore Britain” over a tweet he shared of Lowe and again in a subsequent tweet featuring an interview by Reform’s Treasury spokesman. “Only Restore Britain can save Britain” he commented the following day, on another tweet of Lowe’s.

Lowe formed Restore in February, splintering off from Reform U.K., which began as the Brexit Party after Farage worked successfully to pull Britain out of the European Union in 2016. Musk, who referred to Farage as “weak, runny sauce” in September, immediately began backing Lowe’s party after it was formed.

As Farage, an immigration skeptic and anti-EU crusader, tries to moderate his brand of conservative populism in an attempt to make inroads with a broader range of voters, Restore has sought to outflank its rival from the right — particularly on immigration. On its website, the party calls for deporting legal, foreign-born residents for reasons such as being unable to speak English, living in social housing or claiming government benefits.

A poll by More in Common this week on voter sentiment put Reform in the lead with 29 per cent support and Labour at 22 per cent, but found that support for Starmer’s Labour Party would jump eight per cent if Burnham led the party.

Luke Tryl, a pollster with More in Common, suggested separately that Restore Britain’s challenge to Reform could hand victory to Labour in Makerfield.

“In general we are noticing them being raised more in focus groups, and Lowe in particular among more right-leaning participants. It tends to be people who are more engaged so the test I think is are they just an online phenomenon or something deeper and Makerfield might show that,” Tryl told the Guardian .

He went on: “Even if they get two, three per cent in a general election in an era of fragmented politics that could well be enough to make a huge difference in terms of seats and so Farage ends up in this dilemma of chase those voters but risk alienating the broader mainstream he needs to get to No 10.”

Conventional wisdom suggests Farage’s sharp comments aimed at Lowe during a precarious election risks giving Lowe more attention. Soon after Farage’s comments to the Telegraph, Lowe responded in a lengthy post on X.

“Farage has just gone to the media to attack Restore Britain, again. He says that Elon Musk is supporting a party ‘that’s one man with a social media account,’” he wrote .

“This is where Farage is so very wrong. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of Restore Britain members, backed up millions of Brits who are with us. Those numbers increase every day. Farage can arrogantly insult me over and over, but he has never been more wrong.”

National Post, with a file from Agence France-Presse

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