Elon Musk has said Nigel Farage “doesn’t have what it takes” to lead Reform UK, just weeks after the pair had a “great” meeting in the US.

The owner of Tesla and X – the social media site formerly known as Twitter – met with Mr Farage in December at US President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, which Mr Farage described as “historic”.

That meeting came amid reports Mr Musk was considering donating up to 100 million US dollars (£79 million) to Reform UK.

Mr Farage has defended the tech billionaire’s attacks on the UK Government over its handling of grooming gangs in a series of posts on X, although he distanced himself from Mr Musk’s support for jailed political activist Tommy Robinson, saying he was “not what we need”.

He then appeared to endorse Rupert Lowe, one of the party's five MPs, as a replacement.

"I have not met Rupert Lowe, but his statements online that I have read so far make a lot of sense," Mr Musk wrote in response to a post asking whether the Great Yarmouth MP and former Southampton FC chairman should take over the top job.

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