Just before the EU referendum, the then USA President, Barack Obama, visited the UK and said he hoped that Britain would stay in the EU.
Nigel Farage was having none of it. An American President, he said, had no right to meddle in British affairs. The President, in short, should “butt out”.
The Daily Mirror ran the headline,
“Nigel Farage tells Barack Obama to keep his nose out of the Brexit debate.”
Zoom forward almost nine years and spot the difference.
Now, Nigel Farage is actively encouraging his close ally and incoming President, Donald Trump, together with the unofficial deputy President, Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, to meddle in British affairs.
Mr Musk spends considerable time trashing Labour Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, on his X platform (formerly Twitter). He has described Reform as the UK’s “only hope” and has urged Britons to vote for it.
On 16 December, Mr Farage – who believes he is going to replace Sir Keir as Britain’s Prime Minister – met Mr Musk at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
The meeting came following widespread media reports that Mr Musk is considering a sizeable donation to Mr Farage’s Reform Party – maybe as much as US$100m – as a “f*** you Starmer payment”.
Under UK law, a foreign person is not allowed to donate to a UK political party, although a foreign business based in the UK can.
So, maybe it should come as no surprise that four days before the meeting – on 12 December – Mr Musk registered a new limited company in London called X.AI London Ltd.
However, a foreign-owned company based in the UK can only donate to a UK political party if it is carrying on business in the UK at the time of the donation.
So far as can be ascertained, X.AI London Ltd has not yet started to trade here.
There is already considerable evidence that Putin’s Russia has meddled deeply into Britain’s affairs and helped to fund and fuel Brexit. See my video at theRussianConnection.co.uk
Now, expect more meddling by Trump and Musk into UK politics, aided and abetted by PM wannabe Nigel Farage for his own ends.
Mr Farage has offered to broker a new US-UK free trade agreement to turn the UK further away from the EU.
“The US is our most important relationship in the world – forget Brussels,” he said.
Is this a trap for Sir Keir?
If he accepts the trade agreement, Farage will take the credit. If he doesn’t, Farage will claim that the Labour government has damaged Britain’s prospects.
“Take back control” was the Brexit mantra. But since Brexit, outside actors seem to be controlling our affairs.
What do you think?
𝗝𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝗻𝘇𝗶𝗴 is an independent campaigning journalist and film maker who specialises in writing about health, human rights, and Europe. He is also founder of the information campaign, Reasons2Rejoin
