Elon Musk has spent the past week weighing in on British politics by sharing a libellous Tommy Robinson film with his 210 million followers on X, calling for the far-right activist to be released from prison and suggesting the UK’s safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, takes his place.
It has been an eventful 2025 so far from the man who will take up a senior position in Donald Trump’s administration come January 20th.
After flirting with a nine-figure donation to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, he has attempted to reignite the buccaneering spirit he fostered during the UK riots in August, where he warned that civil war was “inevitable” in the UK.
But despite showcasing a weird obsession with British politics, Musk may be surprised to learn that the people of Britain don’t give two figs about him.
A YouGov survey conducted on 14-15th August, shortly after the UK riots broke out, found that almost four times as many Britons have a negative view of Musk (64 per cent) as a positive one (17 per cent).
The figures represent a significant decline since the pollsters first started asking in 2022, when Musk was first positioning himself to purchase Twitter (now X).
While about the same number of Britons had a positive view of Musk then (23 per cent) as do now, far fewer people actively disliked him (40 per cent).
Musk is also unpopular among users of his platform, even the most active ones.
Most daily X users have a negative opinion of Musk (64 per cent), a figure which matches that among the wider userbase.
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