Jeremy Corbyn has said he was “shocked” to hear reports that Elon Musk may donate $100m to Nigel Farage and Reform UK.
He has also urged Sir Keir Starmer to “clean up” the rules on donations to political parties.
Talking to BBC Newsnight, the former Labour leader said: “I’m absolutely shocked at the idea that somebody such as Musk with that amount of money would pour it into British politics in order to get a populist like Farage elected. We need to clean up our acts on political party funding, just as the USA needs to clean it up even more.
“It has to be limited and it has to be totally transparent. Musk pouring those sums of money into our politics over the next four years is, to me, quite frightening. Wealthy people owning politics is very dangerous.”
When reminded donations from wealthy individuals aren’t new to British politics, Mr Corbyn asked, “Isn’t it time to end it?”
He believes the Labour government should tighten up the rules on donations to political parties. However, he claimed funding from trade unions is different.
“Trade unions aren’t commercial operations like Elon Musk and don’t have the selfish interests of him,” he said.
“A trade union represents its members. It’s a democratic organisation. That’s a completely different thing.”
His intervention comes days after Nigel Farage and Reform’s treasurer Nick Candy met with Elon Musk at Donald Trump’s multi-million dollar mansion in Florida.
The pair met with the American billionaire Elon Musk to discuss “money” and “the Trump ground game”.
In a joint statement, Nigel Farage and Nick Candy said: “We had a great meeting with Elon Musk for an hour yesterday. We learned a great deal about the Trump ground game and will have ongoing discussions on other areas.
“We only have one more chance left to save the West and we can do great things together.
“Our thanks also to President Trump for allowing us to use Mar-A-Lago for this historic meeting. The special relationship is alive and well.”