Reform UK is unlikely to receive a record-breaking multimillion-pound donation from Elon Musk, Nigel Farage appears to have conceded.
The former Ukip leader said the idea of a mega-donation from the X boss and ‘first buddy’ of Donald Trump had been “massively over-exaggerated”.
The two men fell out spectacularly earlier this year, with Mr Musk even calling for a new leader for Reform, but now talk and text each other.
Asked about the mega-donation, he called Mr Musk a “hero” for buying the social media platform but admitted they took a “different view” in their row over jailed far-right political activist Tommy Robinson.
Mr Farage, speaking at an event in Westminster, said Mr Musk had tried to “push me a bit on it”, adding: “You can’t bully me. I’ve got my principles. I stand by them, good or bad”.
He added: “The mega donation, it was always massively over-exaggerated anyway. It was always going to be difficult for Elon to give us money anyway. I mean, Tesla’s got problems as it is. Can you imagine if Tesla was to give a donation to us. How difficult that would be?
“I’m not on bad terms with him. We do text a little bit. We do talk. We’re on perfectly reasonable terms, but boy, he’s got a hell of a job with (the White House)”.
He also tried to downplay expectations in the upcoming Runcorn by-election.
He said: “I was asked the other day ‘this must be a must win by-election for Reform?’ The truth is … it’s a must-win by-election for Labour. We’re going to run them close whatever we do.”
On Tory MPs, Mr Farage said: “I have never met a more stuck up, arrogant, out of touch group of people, than at least half of the Conservative MPs. Stuffy, boring old b******s. And that is on the record.
“And they should all be in the Lib Dems anyway. They don’t have a single Conservative idea among them.”
He also mocked Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, saying she “often works very hard in the afternoon for a few hours” and called her former leadership rival Robert Jenrick “generic”, poking fun at him as a “Nigel Farage impersonator”.
And he risked triggering a row over sexism when asked about his views, by saying more men “are prepared to sacrifice their family lives in order to pursue a career and be successful in a way that fewer women are. And those women that do have probably got more chance of reaching the top than the blokes.”
He added that men used to be at the top of boardrooms because “the country was white men”.
