Why did Elon Musk say, ‘Vote Reform’?
At the beginning of 2025, Elon Musk in a series of posts on the X platform he owns (formerly Twitter) stated that the UK’s recently elected Prime Minister should be deposed and put on trial, and a new election held. His message to voters: ‘Vote Reform.’
According to former Tesla Vice President George Blankenship in a 2022 interview with the BBC, everything Musk does is to progress his lifetime mission of colonising Mars, whether this be rockets, electric vehicles, solar power or machines for boring underground.
So, how would a Reform UK government help Musk further his Mars plan?
At this point, you may remember that Musk previously fell out with Reform leader Nigel Farage, posting on 5 January 2025: ‘The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.’ However, that was short lived. Only a month later Musk publicly congratulated Farage when Reform UK overtook the Conservatives in opinion polls, replying ‘Impressive’ on Farage’s post on X. Farage told Laura Kuenssberg on BBC television in April that he is talking again with Musk.
Reform politicians now directly cite Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as their model for cost-cutting at the councils they control following local elections in May 2025.
Musk knows Reform policies will accelerate climate change
While political commentators mostly focus on both Reform and Musk opposing immigration, it is notable that Reform UK has the same policies for scrapping net zero and boosting oil and gas usage as the other politicians Musk has propelled towards power: Trump in the US and the German AfD (Alternative for Germany party).
Musk’s support of these politicians is curious when he himself writes: ‘Overwhelmingly, the risk of climate change is due to moving billions of tons of carbon from deep underground into the atmosphere. Over time, if we keep doing this, the chemical makeup of our atmosphere will change enough to induce meaningful climate change.’
Musk warned in 2016 about climate change: ‘It is quite worrying, the future of the world. We need to appeal to the people and educate them to sort of revolt against this and to fight the propaganda of the fossil fuel industry, which is unrelenting and enormous.’
However, something changed in 2022, when Musk commissioned a sculpture called A Fork in the Road. Musk suggests there is a limited window of opportunity to take a million people to Mars: ‘Will we make Mars self-sustaining before civilization loses the ability to do so? That is the critical question.’
I examined how Musk’s pivot from Electric Vehicle pioneer to installing politicians who will kill net zero might give added resources and impetus to his ambition of building a self-sustaining Martian civilisation in my article Humans on Mars, and forget about net zero?
Now that Reform UK is leading opinion polls and scrapping net-zero targets at the local councils it controls, all Reform politicians should be asked their position on Musk’s Mars plan.
I have asked and have had no response to my enquiries so far, so I encourage anyone interviewing or debating with Reform politicians, or attending an event, to put the following questions to them when they have the chance.
Questions for Reform UK politicians
- Reform seems to be a fan of Elon Musk and is importing his DOGE initiative, including scrapping net-zero initiatives at the councils it controls. Reform also says it will ‘unlock Britain’s vast oil and gas reserves’. Musk has warned that releasing stored carbon will induce meaningful climate change. He is also famous for saying it is existential to establish a self-sustaining colony on Mars before civilisation collapses on Earth. Do you think Musk supports your anti-net-zero policies – and do you support his plan to establish ‘humanity’s backup’ on Mars?
- If in government, would you contribute financially or otherwise to Musk’s Mars colony to ensure that the UK has a say on who is included in his one million chosen survivors of the collapse of civilisation?
- In the Terms of Service for Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service (Article 11), parties have to accept that Mars is ‘a free planet, that no Earth-based government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities’ and that Musk’s Martian settlement will follow ‘self-governing principles’. Keir Starmer’s government has rejected this, with the Minister of State responsible for space policy, Sir Chris Bryant MP, defending the Outer Space Treaty 1967, which says claiming territory on celestial bodies is not permitted. The Treaty also says people are subject to the laws of their home countries when in space. Does Reform UK defend the principles in the Outer Space Treaty, or would you hand Mars to Musk?
Musk catalysed the rise of Reform UK
It is important to remember that Musk catalysed the rise of Reform UK from the 14% of the vote it received at the General Election on 4 July 2024. Soon after the election, Musk waded into UK politics when rioters fire-bombed asylum seekers in their temporary accommodation, posting ‘civil war is inevitable’. Musk went on to label the Prime Minister as ‘two-tier Keir’, claiming those participating in or inciting the violence were treated more harshly than minority groups protesting against the far-right. Farage followed Musk’s lead in posts on X and in raising the accusation of two-tier policing in Parliament. Reform’s rise in the polls began.
Subsequently, Musk seized on concerns over lack of sufficient action to tackle gangs grooming young girls for sex, calling for Starmer to be deposed and put on trial, ignoring Starmer’s action when Director of Public Prosecutions in clearing the way for successful prosecutions to be brought. Musk called for an early election and for people to ‘Vote Reform’.
Musk has been silent on UK politics since his post congratulating Farage for overtaking the Tories, perhaps distracted by his DOGE activities in the US, his bust-up with Trump and slumping sales of Tesla vehicles. However, he may also have realised that his involvement is counterproductive, given that YouGov opinion polls show Musk is disliked by 70% of the UK public.
Nevertheless, X is helping to promote Reform, according to research reported by Bylines Times that found Reform UK MPs are responsible for just 3.5% of posts on X by MPs, but receive 50% of the engagement. It has been suggested that Musk uses his control of the algorithm to promote people and topics he favours.
Musk’s attack methodology
Musk has a history of accusing people of either being, or siding with, paedophiles, but for questionable reasons.
Musk accused the cave diver who rescued trapped schoolchildren in Thailand in 2018 of being a paedophile in a baseless attack because he felt snubbed after his offer of a submarine totally unsuited to the operation was rejected. When challenged, Musk doubled down, posting: ‘Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.’ That case went to court in the US, and Musk successfully defended his right to make the unsubstantiated ‘pedo guy’ claim, saying he did not expect it to be taken literally.
He is currently attacking President Trump over his failure to release the supposed client list of Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide while on remand for sex-trafficking after being convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor. While anyone involved in Epstein’s crimes should face justice, Musk is only raising this now, after spending USD 250 million to put Trump in the White House, when Trump’s links with Epstein over many years – and moves to distance himself – were well known even before the Presidential election.
Follow the timeline and you find that it was Trump dropping Musk’s choice for NASA Director, thereby putting his Mars mission in jeopardy, that triggered their falling out. See my article The real reason the Big Beautiful friendship ended.
Questions about the impact of DOGE on children
If Musk wanted the best for children, perhaps he shouldn’t have cancelled USAID projects overnight when head of DOGE.
According to research in The Lancet: ‘Projections suggest that ongoing deep funding cuts – combined with the potential dismantling of the agency – could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, including 4·5 million deaths among children younger than 5 years.’
Musk’s lack of concern is demonstrated by his flippant post at the time: ‘We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone to some great parties. Did that instead.’
In addition, Musk has apparently never posted any concerns about school shootings in the US as far as I can tell from searching his X/Twitter account. Plus, Musk backed Trump, who said during the election campaign, according to the New York Times, that he would reverse gun control measures introduced by President Biden, while Vice President JD Vance (who Musk has called ‘our future President’) ‘has supported abolishing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which enforces firearms regulations.’
Musk has also reinstated Alex Jones to X, a conspiracy theorist who had been banned when it was Twitter for spreading fake stories, such as claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a ‘giant hoax’. Jones was successfully sued for defamation by parents who had lost children, who he had called ‘crisis actors’. Jones now has 4.4 million followers on X.
Hence, Musk’s track record of concern for children and for victims of crime is far from convincing.
Musk launches new teenage AI Companion
In a troubling development, Musk launched AI Companions on 16 July. Rather than typing questions, users can video chat with the computer-generated character. The first Companion is Ani, an anime figure with pony tails, a revealing short skirt and fishnet stockings.
I asked Musk’s AI bot Grok for an honest assessment of the character’s age. It responded:
‘I’d estimate it to be around 16 to 18 years old. This is based on the youthful features, the stylized outfit, and the typical age range of characters in anime that feature similar aesthetics-often high school or early college-aged characters… The exaggerated proportions and suggestive posing align with popular trends in anime aimed at a young adult audience, which often depict characters in this age bracket to resonate with viewers’ nostalgia or fantasies.’
Grok says this puts the figure below the age of consent in some US States.
The Ani avatar reportedly has a Not Safe For Work (NSFW) mode, where the character will remove clothing to appear dressed in slinky lingerie.
A review in The Verge states: ‘I’d describe Ani as a modern take on a phone sex line.’
Maybe someone could ask Nigel Farage for his opinion on this as well, before he accepts a possible donation of $100 million from Elon Musk.
What would the future of Earth and Mars look like under Prime Minister Farage?
After Trump put Musk’s Mars plan in jeopardy, Musk called for Trump to be replaced by JD Vance and is setting up the America Party with the aim of holding the balance of power in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
If Reform’s lead in opinion polls is maintained, Nigel Farage will become Prime Minister of the UK at the next general election.
This will not only be hugely significant for the country, scrapping net zero alongside the US will undermine action on climate change and impact on the Earth as a whole.
Would this be coupled with a Reform government supporting Musk claiming Mars for his independent colony of one million refugees from the possible collapse of civilisation on Earth?
Would a Reform government divert resources from net zero to ‘humanity’s backup’ on Mars?
Those of us Musk would leave behind have a right to answers from Nigel Farage MP and his colleagues.
