Nigel Farage has benefitted from Elon Musk's surprising attack on him back in January, shock new polling suggests.
It follows the Reform leader's spat with Rupert Lowe, the MP suspended from the party over allegations of making verbal threats and workplace bullying (Lowe strenuously denies all allegations).
We previously reported how prominent figures in Reform's orbit suggested the infighting started when Musk called for the insurgent party to replace its leader.
On January 5, the X owner tweeted: “The Reform party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
The billionaire entrepreneur appeared to take umbrage with Farage distancing Reform UK from Musk’s support for Tommy Robinson, a jailed far-right activist who was gaining traction on the world stage amid the renewed interest in the grooming gang scandal.
The eccentric billionaire may have permanently damaged his reputation among Reform UK voters, shock new polling suggests
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Lowe's defence of the far-right activist played well with Musk, who appeared to suggest the MP for Great Yarmouth should replace Farage as leader.
The ensuing row between Farage and Lowe appeared to hurt the former's approval ratings - recent YouGov polling found the number of Reform UK voters with a favourable view of Farage fell from 86 per cent to 73 per cent.
However, Farage has since enjoyed a bounce back, with a new YouGov poll finding his support among Reform voters has risen again to 80 per cent.
Meanwhile, Musk's favourability ratings have gone from bad to worse, the polling shows.
Most Reform UK voters (58 per cent) now have an unfavourable view of Elon Musk, an 18-point drop since January. Only 36 per cent still have a favourable view of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) figurehead, an 11-point reduction.
While the billionaire was popular among this group in our polling last year, his attacks on Farage in January saw the number of Reform UK voters with an unfavourable view of him shoot up, and since then, this opinion has come to be the dominant one in this portion of the electorate.
The results indicate that Musk may have permanently damaged his reputation among Reform UK voters.
It also suggests Farage has been vindicated in his spat with Lowe as the MP for Great Yarmouth's most high-profile backer is punished by Reform's base.
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Most Reform UK voters (58 per cent) now have an unfavourable view of Elon Musk, an 18-point drop since January
REUTERSFarage appears to have scored a win with the wider electorate too, as their opinion on Musk has soured.
YouGov's latest poll – the first since Donald Trump’s presidency began, in which Musk has a high-level role – shows that fully 80 per cent of Britons now have an unfavourable opinion of the Tesla CEO. This is a nine-point increase from its January survey.
Only 13 per cent of Britons have a positive view of Musk, down from 20 per cent two months ago.
However, as we explored previously, Farage is walking a very delicate tightrope between appealing to domestic audiences and cosying up to Trump as Reform has modelled itself as the UK's answer to the Maga movement.
The new polling underscores the challenge of this balancing act: the US president remains extremely unpopular in the UK, with 78 per cent of Britons having a negative view of Donald Trump, compared to just 16 per cent with a positive view.
