Elon Musk looms large over UK politics as MPs return for 2025

“It’s not been the perfect day,” said one Reform figure with a splash of understatement and a smile. “We probably do look a bit silly.”

Farage’s repeated statements distancing himself from the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, appear to be at the heart of the spat.

Reform hadn’t seen this coming. Just weeks ago they were talking up the prospect of a big money donation from Elon Musk – but are now trying to put the best spin on things.

“Nigel is not for sale,” is how one senior party figure put it to me, saying this showed that the Reform leader was willing to stand up to anybody, including the richest man in the world.

Another said that if Reform were to be treated as a serious political outfit – and remember, Nigel Farage has said he wants to win the next general election – that means robustly and consistently rejecting any association with Robinson, whatever the consequences.

The one politician to attract some praise from Elon Musk, for now at least, is the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, for her calls for a public inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Badenoch sees the scandal as a case study in what she sees as our broken politics.

For Badenoch, 2025 will be a crucial year as she fights to rebuild her party and fights for attention – not easy, when Nigel Farage is around.

She got yet another taste of that over Christmas in a very public row with him over party membership numbers: Badenoch suggested Reform’s claim on Boxing Day to have overtaken the Tories’ membership numbers were “fake” as their tally was automatically rising.