Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage and US billionaire Elon Musk can form a positive relationship, with Team Trump helping to overcome a spat between the two men, businessman Nick Candy has told The National.
Speaking in an exclusive interview, Mr Candy, the Reform treasurer, who is travelling to the US on Friday for US president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, said he hoped Mr Farage will be the next prime minister of the UK. The fledgling party is so confident of its links to the president-elect that it claims the traditional reference point of a special relationship between America and Britain now runs through its leadership.
“The special relationship now lies between the UK and the US with Nigel Farage and President Donald Trump,” said Mr Candy, who has significant ties to US politics. His wife, Holly, hosted the largest and most successful overseas fund-raiser for the Republican Party last year, raising more than $3 million in support of the Trump campaign.
Mr Candy also shared insights from a meeting he arranged last month at Mar-a-Lago, Florida involving himself, Mr Musk and Mr Farage. “Elon is very pro-Reform. He likes Nigel,” he said.
Having campaigned vigorously for Mr Trump's victory in November, Mr Musk turned his attention at the end of 2024 to criticism of the Labour government over its handling of the grooming gangs scandal, which involves the abuse of thousands of girls in towns across the UK.
The Reform treasurer was surprised when the row with Keir Starmer's government resulted in the billionaire training his sights on Mr Farage's job. Posting on X early this month, Mr Musk said Mr Farage "doesn't have what it takes" to lead Reform. "The Reform Party needs a new leader,” he wrote in the post.
In his interview with The National, Mr Candy dismissed the recent fallout, saying people have “differences of opinions”, but added he is confident their relationship can be patched up in the future.
“Hopefully at the inauguration we will spend some time with Elon and will make sure things are positive going forward. But what Elon has done is amazing in terms of highlighting the gangs, rapes, grooming and two-tier Keir with different policing things."
The X owner's campaign involved calling for an activist known as Tommy Robinson to be released from prison. This was a step too far for Mr Farage, who has repeatedly made clear the law-breaking far-right activist is not welcome in Reform, seemingly distancing himself from the comments.
The Reform leadership shares concerns over what is known as two-tier justice in the UK, where headlines reveal crimes such as theft and violence result in lighter sentencing than for those held for joining the wave of destruction in last summer's riots. “You can write something on social media and get sent to prison for it. But if a guy gets stabbed, the person who does the stabbing doesn’t go to prison,” said Mr Candy.
The British public are “not going to accept this”, he added, which will result in “massive change” in which Labour will become a one-term government. “Anyone who protests apparently is far-right, which is mind blowing. But just because you protest doesn’t mean you are far-right,” he said.
The next election, which will be held in four years’ time or sooner, will hopefully result in Mr Farage becoming the prime minister, said Mr Candy. “But if Nigel is not prime minister in four years’ time or before, then I will leave, as I don’t need to stay here.”
Mr Candy said he will leave for the UAE, where he already spends much of his time. However, he said he is willing to wait it out for now to see what happens. The property developer is known for a range of high-profile projects across London, including the prime One Hyde Park.
His comments came after a new YouGov poll showed Reform UK virtually neck-and-neck with Labour, six months after both parties made significant gains in a general election. Mr Farage stood at 25 per cent in the poll released on Monday, behind Labour on 26 per cent. Reform pushed the Conservatives into third place at 22 per cent in the voting intention survey, YouGov's first since the election last July.
Mr Candy, a luxury property developer who became Reform’s treasurer last month, said the UK was getting “basic things” wrong and called for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to be sacked for her budget, which resulted in the pound sinking and gilt yields rising. She edited her LinkedIn profile last year after accusations she had embellished her role at a leading bank.
Mr Candy said she "wouldn’t get a job in any of my companies".
The UK’s economy is in a “bad way”, he said, and the country cannot tax its way out of the problem. Growth is the only answer. “You have to grow the economy. And why has the UAE been successful? The UAE has got the best talent in the world wanting to join them, whether you are in crypto, whether you are in real estate, whether you are an entrepreneur, they have created an environment which is brilliant for all those types of people where they can thrive – young, hungry, wealthy, affluent people who want to come and create wealth."
The UK must get out of the way of thinking that wealth creation is a bad thing, he said. In the US, it is praised. They have 'the American dream', he added.
“We have to get out of that [anti-wealth] psyche. It’s horrendous. I didn’t come from money. I started with a £6,000 [$7,310] loan in 1995 from my grandmother. You want the same people who have that £6,000 or equivalent today to have that same opportunity. They don’t, which saddens me,” he added.
Continental champions
Best Asian Player: Massaki Todokoro (Japan)
Best European Player: Adam Wardzinski (Poland)
Best North & Central American Player: DJ Jackson (United States)
Best African Player: Walter Dos Santos (Angola)
Best Oceanian Player: Lee Ting (Australia)
Best South American Player: Gabriel De Sousa (Brazil)
Best Asian Federation: Saudi Jiu-Jitsu Federation
Afro%20salons
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid
What is a calorie?
A food calorie, or kilocalorie, is a measure of nutritional energy generated from what is consumed.
One calorie, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C.
A kilocalorie represents a 1,000 true calories of energy.
Energy density figures are often quoted as calories per serving, with one gram of fat in food containing nine calories, and a gram of protein or carbohydrate providing about four.
Alcohol contains about seven calories a gram.
The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
Rocketman
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Taron Egerton, Richard Madden, Jamie Bell
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
PSG's line up
GK: Alphonse Areola (youth academy)
Defence - RB: Dani Alves (free transfer); CB: Marquinhos (€31.4 million); CB: Thiago Silva (€42m); LB: Layvin Kurzawa (€23m)
Midfield - Angel di Maria (€47m); Adrien Rabiot (youth academy); Marco Verratti (€12m)
Forwards - Neymar (€222m); Edinson Cavani (€63m); Kylian Mbappe (initial: loan; to buy: €180m)
Total cost: €440.4m (€620.4m if Mbappe makes permanent move)
PAST 10 BRITISH GRAND PRIX WINNERS
2016 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2015 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2014 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2013 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)
2012 - Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing)
2011 - Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
2010 - Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing)
2009 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2008 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2007 - Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH
Directed by: Shaka King
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons
Four stars
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Equaliser 2
Director Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Ashton Sanders
Three stars
Qosty Byogaani
Starring: Hani Razmzi, Maya Nasir and Hassan Hosny
Four stars
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Saturday
West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur (3.30pm)
Burnley v Huddersfield Town (7pm)
Everton v Bournemouth (7pm)
Manchester City v Crystal Palace (7pm)
Southampton v Manchester United (7pm)
Stoke City v Chelsea (7pm)
Swansea City v Watford (7pm)
Leicester City v Liverpool (8.30pm)
Sunday
Brighton and Hove Albion v Newcastle United (7pm)
Monday
Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion (11pm)
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
Jawan
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The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
THE DETAILS
Director: Milan Jhaveri
Producer: Emmay Entertainment and T-Series
Cast: John Abraham, Manoj Bajpayee
Rating: 2/5
Company profile
Name: Oulo.com
Founder: Kamal Nazha
Based: Dubai
Founded: 2020
Number of employees: 5
Sector: Technology
Funding: $450,000
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
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Read more about the coronavirus
THE SPECS
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Transmission: seven-speed dual clutch
Power: 710bhp
Torque: 770Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 2.9 seconds
Top Speed: 340km/h
Price: Dh1,000,885
On sale: now
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Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
Uefa Nations League: How it Works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
