LONDON — Elon Musk may have picked a fight with Nigel Farage, but the British public isn’t buying it.
New polling by the campaign group More in Common finds that Farage, the Brexit campaigner who now heads up the populist-right Reform UK party, has a net favourability rating of -18.
But that looks like an outpouring of adoration next to Musk, the tech billionaire and Donald Trump pick who is bumping along on a net approval rating of -35.
The finding — in a survey of 2,000 Brits — comes after Musk said Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” and should be replaced as Reform leader.
That’s despite Farage, who enraged Musk by distancing himself from the imprisoned far-right, anti-immigration agitator Tommy Robinson, working hard to win Musk’s support.
Voters across all parties backed Farage’s decision to break with Musk over Robinson, with 50 percent agreeing the co-founder of the race-baiting English Defence League shouldn’t be allowed to join Reform, and just 12 percent thinking it was the wrong decision for Farage to say so.
Among Farage’s own Reform UK voters, the polling showed 57 percent back the leader’s move, compared to 21 percent who thought rejecting Robinson was incorrect.
Across the general public, Robinson himself — currently in jail for breaching a court order after he repeatedly libelled a Syrian schoolboy — has a net favorability rating of -34. Among Reform voters, his net rating is +5.
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