Nigel Farage has defended Elon Musk after the billionaire attacked the UK government's response to grooming gangs on X, the social media platform he owns. In a series of posts over several days, Musk suggested Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute gangs and said Home Office minister Jess Phillips "deserves to be in prison".

Nigel Farage has launched a defense of Elon Musk’s incendiary social media attacks on Keir Starmer, claiming that “free speech is back” under the Tesla tycoon’s ownership of X. The Reform UK leader said that “tough things get said” in public life after Mr Musk described safeguarding minister Jess Phillips as a “rape genocide apologist” who should be in jail.

Nigel Farage had said he was in negotiations to get Elon Musk to donate to Reform to help it challenge the dominant Labour and Conservative parties.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he’s staying “cool” against critical personal comments made by Elon Musk but finds it worrying that the U.S. billionaire makes the effort to get involved in a general election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.