Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said yesterday that “X is now becoming a very unpleasant and very dangerous place,” despite his MPs pocketing more than £55,000 from the site since the July 2024 general election.

Farage himself has made over £22,700 through the platform – owned by far-right tech entrepreneur Elon Musk – since becoming the MP for Clacton.

He said that Reform candidates of minority ethnic backgrounds had suffered racist abuse on X – a platform on which Farage has an audience of 2.2 million followers.

Farage made these remarks at a press conference where he announced the party would consider deporting 400,000 asylum seekers – including those who have arrived within the last five years and have been given the right to remain in the UK.

“My prediction that there would be an invasion has proved to be true,” he said.

The UK has at some point invaded 173 of the 193 UN-recognised countries in its history.

“Nigel Farage wants us to believe that he’s against racism. And yet during the same press conference where he rightly denounced racism against Reform candidates, he used inflammatory language framing refugees as an ‘invasion’,” said Richard Wilson, co-founder of anti-racism campaign group Stop Funding Hate.

“Whatever else we may disagree on, everyone should condemn racist abuse against any political candidate. Equally, alongside condemning racism in others, it’s vital that politicians reflect on their own rhetoric and avoid using xenophobic tropes which create a climate in which racism can come to be seen to be more acceptable.”

Farage and Musk were previously close allies. The Reform leader called the tech founder a “hero for free speech” when he removed content moderation standards following his purchase of X (then known as Twitter) in October 2022.

Hate speech increased by 50 percent in the first eight months after the Musk takeover, according to research published last year, while the platform has proved to be a breeding ground for racist content, conspiracy theories, and deepfake porn.

Musk, a major donor to Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, also regularly posts hate and conspiracy theories on the platform to his 240 million followers.

In 2023, Musk agreed with a tweet that accused Jewish people of “hatred against whites,” replying that it was “the actual truth.”

An analysis found that Musk posted about race almost every day on the platform in January 2026.

In June 2023, X introduced a monetisation scheme for users where those with at least 500 followers could be paid for content that achieved a reach of 500,000 people or more.

Of all Reform’s MPs, Farage has been paid the most from the platform. Former Reform MP Rupert Lowe – who now runs the far-right Restore party – made £22,200 from X while serving under Farage’s banner, while party deputy leader Richard Tice has made almost £7,000.

Farage was previously close to Musk, and met him at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in December 2024 in the hope of convincing the Tesla CEO to donate to Reform. However, the relationship between the pair has cooled after Musk described Farage as “weak sauce” and instead backed Lowe and fellow far-right leader Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (known as Tommy Robinson).

Despite this, Farage is still using Musk’s policies as a “blueprint” for his deportations agenda. In the early stages of Trump’s second term, Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which harvested vast amounts of U.S. public data in order to empower Trump’s deportations unit, ICE. Farage is planning on bringing this model to the UK.

“Questions need to be asked about Nigel Farage’s past praise for Musk, and his financial relationship with X,” Wilson added.

Farage – the highest-paid MP – has received over £2 million in income and gifts since entering Parliament, £675,000 of which has come from overseas interests. Including his X income, Farage has made more than £47,000 from big tech companies in this time.

Zia Yusuf, the party’s spokesperson for home affairs, has also previously criticised X, saying that “The amount of antisemitism and racism on this platform is spiralling out of control”.

However, in yesterday’s press conference, he mirrored Farage’s language on deportations, saying that “the vast majority” of UK asylum seekers from Iran, Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia “are fighting-age men about whom we know nothing.”

DeSmog asked Reform and Farage whether they were prepared to leave X, following Farage’s comments yesterday. We didn’t receive a response.

“Nigel Farage has been happy to profit from X, and there were even rumours of a major donation from Musk to Reform,” said Georgie Laming, director of campaigns at HOPE not hate. “He is right that the racial abuse on the platform has reached a dangerous level. Hate speech is out of control, and Musk famously reinstated the accounts of known far right figures like Tommy Robinson.

“But Reform can hardly lecture others when accusations of racism and hate speech among its own candidates and politicians have become a regular occurrence. He should put his own house in order.”

Allegations Against Farage

More than 30 former classmates have recounted multiple accounts of racism and antisemitism from Farage at school.

Peter Ettedgui, an Emmy- and Bafta-winning director, who is Jewish, recalled Farage repeatedly saying “Hitler was right” and “gas them” – referring to Jewish people.

Farage’s response to these allegations has varied. He has said that he never engaged in racist behaviour “with intent” – but has also called the claims “complete made-up fantasies”.

Farage launched an infamous 2016 Brexit campaign poster which said the UK was at “breaking point” from immigration, showing a line of black and brown people in a photo taken at a refugee camp in Slovenia and implying these people would seek to move to Britain if we remained in the EU.

The poster was widely condemned at the time by politicians from across the political spectrum, even prompting fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson to say that it is “not our campaign” and “not my politics”.

Farage also claimed during the Brexit campaign that more non-white people would be allowed into Britain if we left the EU, while immigration would become a “non-issue”. More people from non-white countries have come into Britain since we left the EU, but Farage has used this as the basis of his aggressive anti-migration campaigning.

The Reform press conference yesterday was held on the 58th anniversary of late Conservative politician Enoch Powell’s notorious “rivers of blood” speech, where he argued that continued immigration into the UK would lead to a race war where white British people would be subjugated. No such war has materialised.

Reform is the UK’s leading anti-climate party, with several of its senior figures – including Farage – denying basic climate science. The Reform leader has claimed it’s “absolutely nuts” for CO2 to be considered a pollutant, while his deputy Richard Tice has called it “plant food”.