Majority of Britons believe Musk having negative impact on UK politics

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

More than half of voters think Elon Musk is having a negative effect on British politics following his criticism of Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.

The South African-born billionaire has spent much of the past week using his social media platform X to attack Starmer and the Labour government for their opposition to another national inquiry into grooming gangs. He accused Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, of being a rape genocide apologist" and falsely claimed Starmer was deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes". Despite strong suggestions that Musk is preparing to make a large donation to Reform UK, he also recently tore into Nigel Farage, saying he was not up to the job of leading the party.