Elon Musk’s father says Nigel Farage is ‘not sturdy sufficient to be the chief Britain wants’ as he joins his billionaire son in criticism of Reform UK chief

Elon Musk‘s father backed his son’s criticism of Nigel Farage saying that ‘he’s not strong enough to be the leader that you need at the moment.’

The X owner and world’s richest man sensationally turned on Mr Farage earlier this week calling for his removal as the Reform UK leader because he does not ‘have what it takes’.

His father Errol Musk has now given similar condemnation describing Mr Farage as ‘not a rare person’ and said that the country is ‘heading in the wrong direction’.

On Sunday, Elon Musk lashed out on his social media platform at his supposed ally, after spending the past week wading into British politics over sex abuse gangs.

Mr Farage referred to Elon Musk as his ‘American friend’ earlier that morning and refused to criticise him over remarks he made about Sir Keir Starmer and senior ministers which have been branded inflammatory.

Asked by Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain whether he has spoken to his son about his remarks about Mr Farage, Errol Musk said: ‘Initially I was the first one to say that I think that Farage is somebody that I don’t think he is a rare person. 

‘He is not strong enough to be the leader that you need at the moment. 

‘You need a really strong leader. Somebody who is prepared to be ultimately crucified, not to lose the odd cigarette or something like that because of the pressure on him. 

‘You need someone who is really prepared to put themselves on the line. 

‘You are heading in the wrong direction in your country and so initially I just said he is not a strong enough person but Elon followed that up by he has just got to go. 

‘And then I was asking him, look it is England after all, we are trying to be fair people. 

‘We’re English I mean, so we would perhaps give him a second chance to see what he could do.’ 

The tech billionaire called for Mr Farage to be replaced as Reform UK’s leader, triggered by Mr Farage’s rejection of pressure from Mr Musk to join forces with Robinson. Elon Musk has also called for Sir Keir Starmer to be jailed accusing the PM of being ‘complicit in the rape of Britain’ over the grooming gangs scandal.

His row with Mr Farage came despite a recent warm meeting at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and rumours that the Twitter owner wanted to donate as much as $100million (£79million) to Reform.

Robinson, who was jailed for 18 months in October for contempt of court, was a member of the far-right BNP and any supporter of that group will never be welcome in his party, Mr Farage said on Monday.

Mr Farage told MailOnline: ‘I am sorry that Elon disagrees and I doubt that he knows the full story about Robinson, my principles are clear and I don’t change them for anyone. Extremism is not welcome in Reform’.

He went on: ‘I am the leader of Reform UK and we are growing fast and trying to win the next general election. This man would not be an asset to our party and we do believe in the rule of law. No former BNP members are welcome in our party’.

Although the Reform leader also admitted that he believes that ‘much’ of what Robinson says about Islam ‘is right’.

It came as Musk took more transatlantic potshots at Mr Farage, sharing a video of the Brexiteer last year saying that there must be a crackdown on Muslim extremism in Britain but you cannot ‘politically alienate the whole of Islam’ in Britain.

Elon Musk has said that Robinson is a political prisoner who should be released from jail. Mr Farage does not agree.

‘Tommy Robinson campaigns against Islam. Much of what he says is right and, despite repeatedly breaking the law, he should not be held in solitary confinement’, Mr Farage said.

After Mr Farage said Robinson was not welcome in the party, Musk called for him to be removed in a surprise attack in which the world’s richest man declared: ‘Farage doesn’t have what it takes.’

It comes as yesterday Errol Musk revealed that his billionaire tycoon son has previously expressed an interest in buying Premier League team Liverpool, to which he has family connections.

Elon Musk has previously described his grandmother, who was born in 1923 and died in 2011 aged 87, as ‘an important part’ of his childhood, which included time spent on Merseyside as young child on holiday. 

‘My Nana was one of the poor working-class girls with no one to protect her who might have been abducted in present day Britain’, he said on X.

‘She was very strict, but also kind and I could always count on her. She grew up very poor in England during the Great Depression only to be bombed in WW2’, he said.

‘To earn money for food, she cleaned houses, leaving me with a lasting respect for those who do so’.

The South African-born Tesla tycoon once proudly declared he was ‘from a British/English not an Afrilkaner background’.

When Margaret Thatcher died in 2013, the entrepreneur paid tribute on Twitter – which he now owns and has rebranded as X – saying the late Prime Minister was ‘tough but sensible and fair like my English Nana’.

His grandmother, Cora Amelia Robinson, was one of five siblings born in the family’s modest terraced house in Mossley Hill, Liverpool in August 1923.

She grew up in pre-war poverty as part of a ‘proud, hard-working family’ before leaving the UK to settle in South Africa where she married Walter Musk in 1944.

The couple went on to have a son Errol who had three children of his own – Elon, brother Kimbal and sister Tosca. As well as the north west, Musk also has relatives elsewhere in England.