Former donor and ally of Nigel Farage, Arron Banks, has ruled out giving money to Reform.

Speaking on GB News, Arron Banks said:

“Elon Musk is a businessman that’s very different to a politician. You’ve already seen a tweet come out this evening where Elon’s agreed with Nigel on another tweet.

“I think often businessmen are used to getting their own way. Nigel stood his ground and Musk rather petulantly sent that little tweet saying, Well, maybe Reform needs a new leader.

“But I think it’s more about him trying to push Nigel into supporting this campaign about Tommy Robinson and him being unfairly in prison.

“I think the bromance will be on-off continually. I think when Trump gets into power, you’ll see this over and again. He uses a technique to push people around a bit. I’m quite glad Nigel stood up and said, ‘not with us.’

“I don’t think there’s ever been a cord to sever. When you look at UKIP, Nigel never wanted the far right, or Tommy Robinson types, to come into UKIP and there’s a very good reason for that.

“I tweeted that Tommy Robinson has actually done a good service raising this issue. That doesn’t mean that you have to approve of him as a person, and I think that’s the issue for Reform.

“Having got to 22% in the polls, it’s vitally important, and Nigel knows this from previous issues, that you’ve got to keep it clean.

“Look at the last election and how Reform was criticised for not vetting candidates, and the publicity there was.

“You look at what Elon Musk done: In one day he’s done more for bringing forward publicity over what happened than the last 10 years of the political class.

“So I fully agree with what Elon Musk has said. What I don’t agree with is that Nigel’s in some way being weak because he’s not wanting to bring Tommy Robinson into the Reform Party or to accept some of the views he’s got.

“We saw it before in UKIP, where that issue occurred there, where Nigel actually left, and the then leader brought Tommy Robinson, or came close, to these people. It destroyed the party and it would do so again.

“I think Nigel’s actually, in one way, standing up to a tech billionaire like Elon Musk with the power he’s got and said, there are lines and no, I disagree.

“Businessmen have got a low tolerance of politicians as a general rule and I would say I’m in that camp as well. And you’re used to, as a businessman, telling people what to do.

“And I think the fact that Nigel has actually come out and said, ‘You know what, no, I don’t agree with you,’ Elon Musk will have a lot more respect for Nigel Farage for being prepared to say that than just kowtow into his particular point of view.

“And I think Elon Musk, by the way, called for Trump not to run again as president two years ago. Now, he’s back with him, so I think you’re going to see a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, and quite a lot of excitement.

“If you look at the way Reform is growing, it’s raised a million pounds over Christmas, just in memberships. And you can see with Nick Candy becoming treasurer, there’s a whole raft of people lining up to support Reform.

“I don’t think it’s reliant on a big Musk donation. It’s going the right way, and it’s winning.

“Never say never. I’ve done it before, but I think the way the party’s going, getting the grass roots, the membership has grown as quickly as it is, that’s much more impressive than a donation from a tech billionaire.

“Not at the moment, but that’s not to say I won’t do in the future.

“I’m certainly happy to get involved with Reform going forward. You go back to the point about why people don’t come forward to support political parties: UKIP had trouble attracting people like Nick Candy, and big donors for the very reason that it had a slight association with some of these people.

“And I think we’ve got to be very brutal about how you go forward with Reform. It’s got to be kept clean and the eyes on the prize of winning. We want to win an election.

“With Tommy Robinson [Musk] has highlighted an absolute national scandal. I think Elon Musk has come to it fresh and he’s outraged as people should be outraged.

“The political class have hidden this up for 10 years. Elon Musk has seen it, and I think he’s reacting to it in a way that is perfectly natural.

“I think Elon Musk has got legitimate business interests in the UK and he’s obviously got an affinity with the UK. You could say during the referendum, I think some of the big American banks donated to remain from their UK subsidiaries.

“If you don’t like it, change the law.

“I think they can [win the next election] and I think they will, but I think Nigel has been very defensive of Reform as a vehicle, and rightly so.

“You only have to look at the last election where in a space of five weeks, they put a list of candidates together, made a few mistakes, got absolutely lacerated.

“So it’s very important for the future of this country that he gets it right.”