Analysis

Musk is ‘ready to bankroll’ UK populist Farage. Is Australia next?

The Reform UK leader is potentially in line for a massive injection of support from the X owner. Could the billionaire be looking at Down Under, too?

Hans van LeeuwenEurope correspondent

Dec 20, 2024 – 8.56am

Email LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Subscribe to gift this article

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.

Subscribe now

Already a subscriber?

London | British populist leader Nigel Farage has been memorably photographed drinking a pint of goats’ testicles for a reality TV show in Australia, and copping a banana milkshake all over his pinstripe suit while campaigning in Essex.

But a potentially more significant addition to his political photo album emerged on social media this week, taken at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Standing in front of an eye-catchingly tacky portrait of the resort’s owner is an awkward-looking trio: Farage, his Reform UK party’s money-bags treasurer, Nick Candy, and Elon Musk.

Hans van Leeuwen covers British and European politics, economics and business from London. He has worked as a reporter, editor and policy adviser in Sydney, Canberra, Hanoi and London.