Shadow Minister Kevin Hollinrake suggests the Conservative Party should accept donations from Elon Musk, while acknowledging the volatility of his support.
Shadow minister Kevin Hollinrake suggests the Tories should accept any donation, but with caution. The world’s richest man and confidante of incoming US president-elect Donald Trump has used his social media platform X to praise Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s stance on grooming gangs.
The shadow Housing Secretary, Kevin Hollinrake, did not rule out the Tories accepting a donation from Musk amid reports that he was interested in destabilising: “Well, as I’ve said before, donations are welcome as long they are properly made and by the right people and they comply with the rules.” He went on: “We’re keen to get support from all quarters, but primarily from British voters and anybody who wants to support us to that end, then all well and good.” It comes amid the row over an inquiry into grooming gangs following a series of posts by the owner of X which Starmer has dismissed as “lies and misinformation”. The Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Thursday that he is concerned about what Musk is posting online.in which he commended her “brave and true” claim that Starmer was blocking a national inquiry into the gangs because he “did not want questions asked of Labour politicians who may be complicit”. She has also become one of the few British MPs he follows on X.The barb raised doubts about whether Musk would go ahead with a large donation which he was understood to be considering handing Reform.reported on Thursday that Musk had discussed with allies how Starmer could be forced out of Downing Street before the next election. As a US citizen, Musk cannot make personal political donations in the UK, but a donation could be made within the rules through the British branch of X. Asked whether it would be worth Badenoch’s Tories forging a relationship with Musk and listening to his thoughts on British politics, Hollinrake said: “Listen, I think what Kemi will do is she’ll do the right thing. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage (right) and Elon Musk pictured last month at Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida (Photo: Stuart Mitchell/Reform UK/PA) “If people then want to follow her – you can’t choose to be a leader, you can only be somebody people choose to follow – if Elon Musk thinks Kemi is the right person to lead this country and he uses the platform he has to say that, well, all well and good.” He added: “But I think one thing you’d say about recent days where he’s seemingly fallen out of love with Nigel Farage, is that kind of support can be very short-lived and the position can be pretty volatile. So I don’t think it’s something you can win an election on the back of.” Hollinrake praised Musk as an “incredibly successful business person and an incredible intellect”, but added: “The support we want is the support of the British people, or the majority of them, so that’s what the focus will be.”is foreign interference and what the Government should do about it, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “I think that Keir Starmer was exactly right earlier in the week when he of course acknowledged the right to free speech, and there is a debate across the world about free speech and Elon Musk is at one end of that debate. “My own view is you can’t have free speech if it’s not based on a fact, a truth and I’ve had real concerns about some of what I’ve seen online particularly.” The Foreign Secretary also said the UK had not discussed Musk in its informal talks with the incoming Trump administration as he will have a domestic-facing role leading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency – or “Doge” – a taskforce aimed at cutting federal government waste.Warning against it, a former Cabinet minister said: “He knows nothing about the issues and clearly every time he tweets his ignorance is revealed. That does worry me, that somehow he is influencing how the party responds.” An MP on the right of the party said: “I think if we get into a politics where everything is geared to trying to impress one very volatile guy – who admittedly does have a lot of power and influence in terms of reach through X – that’s a hiding to nothing because just as Reform have found out, he can be your best mate one day and then bite really hard the next day for no apparent reason.” Another Tory MP said: “He’s a very successful business who’s created a lot of wealth and innovation. His clumsy musings on British politics are those of a businessman, not of a full-time politician. That’s up to him, isn’t it? He’s a free citizen.Badenoch has described herself as a “huge fan of Elon Musk”. In September, she said he had been a “fantastic thing for freedom speech”.She said: “I’m someone who has been writing endlessly about how we are becoming more bureaucratic as a country, rather than entrepreneurial. “I’ve written papers, I’ve given speeches on this, and Doge is basically what I have been talking about.
ELON MUSK CONSERVATIVE PARTY DONATIONS UK POLITICS KEMI BADENOCH FOREIGN INTERFERENCE
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