More voters think tech tycoon’s comments on grooming gangs are unhelpful than those who back him

Summary

A majority of Britons believe Elon Musk negatively impacts UK politics, according to an Opinium poll.

Musk has used his platform X to criticize Keir Starmer and Labour’s stance on grooming gang inquiries, calling Starmer “deeply complicit” and accusing Jess Phillips of being a “rape genocide apologist.”

53% of voters believe Musk’s involvement in British politics is negative, while 47% find his comments about grooming gangs unhelpful. Only 12% see his involvement positively.

Reform UK supporters oppose his criticism of Nigel Farage, and public opinion on another national grooming inquiry remains divided.

  • @cydEnglish
    14•1 day ago

    I feel like Musk doesn’t have much to work with in UK politics. In the US and continental Europe, his pattern has been to find the “barbarians at the gates” and use his resources to help open up the gates. In the UK, the barbarians kinda already sacked the city a while ago with Brexit. There’s not much left that Musk can do to mix things up.

    • Flying SquidMEnglish
      3•20 hours ago

      It’s also a hell of a lot easier to control a nation when you control one of the only two parties in a two party system.

      The UK and Europe (at least in any of the European countries I know about) do not have two-party systems.

      Elon can control the far right, but the moderate European right has become pretty turned off by him. Even some of the far right is sick of him. I mean he even lost Nigel Farage and that guy is a master suck-up.

      • @CheeseNoodleEnglish
        3•20 hours ago

        Unfortunately the UK does have a 2 party system, we have pretty much all the same electoral bullshit as the US just in parliment flavour.

        • Flying SquidMEnglish
          3•20 hours ago

          If that were true, Musk would not be pushing for Reform UK to win elections. He’s not backing the Tories.

          • @nogooduserEnglish
            2•18 hours ago

            We kind of have a 3 party system in the UK with the third party being a mix of parties. There’s no realistic chance of anyone except the Conservative and Labour parties to win the majority in parliament. Sometimes the two main parties need the support of one of the other parties to get a majority.

            I think that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland might be the same but the two main parties are different for them.

            I don’t know why Musk would support Reform UK as that wouldn’t really increase the chances of them forming a government in the time of his short attention span. The best that he can hope for is for them to become the third largest party in the next election but that would stuff the Conservatives chances of winning that election because most of Reform UK votes would come from them.