Coffee House Shots: Farage vs Musk

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

How do you solve a problem like Elon? We have spent much of the past week talking on the podcast about Labour vs Musk, and the tech billionaire’s vocal criticism of how the government is dealing with the grooming gang scandal. But Reform UK are having their own issues with the volatile owner of X. There have been questions over whether Musk could still bankroll the party after he called for Farage to step down following a disagreement over Musk’s support for the far-right activist Tommy Robinson – but in the last 24 hours, it seems the tech billionaire has rowed back a little on his stance and has returned to reposting Farage’s tweets.

Musk seems to be playing those on the right of British politics against each other, dishing out endorsements – retweets – to a different politician each day. Can anyone trust Musk? And what has the response to the grooming gang scandal revealed about parties on both sides of British politics?

James Heale speaks to Katy Balls and Tim Stanley, columnist for the Telegraph.

Produced by Megan McElroy, Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Ed Balls and me, George Osborne, here from our podcast Political Currency.
0:05.6	And we're really excited to tell you about a special series with David Cameron on the first six months as Prime Minister.
0:12.1	Letters to Trident submarine captains, hostage crises, that first budget.
0:17.0	There's so much we pack into those first few months.
0:20.0	This is David Cameron, as you've never heard him before.
0:23.2	It's Barack Obama on the telephone going, well done, David, enjoyed this moment.
0:26.9	It's all downhill from here.
0:28.2	I've had my rouse with sarcozy over the years, but whenever I see him, I always give him this big hug.
0:33.3	Thank him for letting me see my dad before he died.
0:35.7	Listen, enjoy, be provoked.
0:37.7	Inside number 10, David Cameron, the first six months.
0:40.4	Search for political currency wherever you get your podcast.
0:48.4	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots.
0:50.3	I'm James Hill and I'm joined today by the spectators' political editor, Katie Balls,
0:53.8	and the telegraph columnist Tim Stanley.
0:56.0	Now Katie, it's been a big week for Elon Musk and Labour and Nigel Farage.
1:01.4	So tell us all about what's happened in the last 48 hours or so.
1:04.3	Well, there's obviously so many different angles to what has been.
1:07.6	The return might even be the wrong word, but the grooming gang scandal going to the
1:12.5	top of the news agenda, largely thanks to the tweets of Elon Musk. Now, I think, has been discussed
1:19.1	in depth on this podcast and on Spectator TV. The largest part of that story is about child grooming
1:24.4	gangs, what happened, and where there'll be an inquiry.
	...

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