Mr Farage and his supporters are locked in a furious public row with MP Rupert Lowe, who was accused of bullying staff and threatening a senior official the day after he accused the party leader of acting like a ‘messiah’.

Elon Musk was linked with a £100million donation to the party at the start of the year. However, reports today suggest he could be eying up funding a new rival right wing party

A second shows Reform is overall down two points – as is Labour – after a difficult week for its politicians in the UK and its international allies.

Mr Lowe used an interview with the Dan Wootton Outspoken programme to admit he had been in contact with Musk, though it has been limited to ‘a little bit of DM’ing on Twitter, not big, a thumbs up or whatever, and he retweets quite a lot of what we put on Twitter, or on X’.

‘That’s the extent of it. There is no more to it or less to it than that,’ he said.

He suggested he was suspended by Reform UK for being a ‘tall poppy’ who threatened to overshadow Nigel Farage, adding that the leader ‘tends to fall out with’ people whom he deems ‘capable enough to take over from him’.

But Mr Farage hit back on Monday night, telling GB News: ‘I don’t fall out with anybody, they fall out with me.

‘There has been a behavioural problem for some months. Outbursts, anger, that kind of thing.

‘Frankly I’ve tried to, we’ve tried to, put it all to the back of our minds.. And I’m not prejudging anything on the allegations of a bullying culture going on in his offices.

‘But I put it you that any party who had a senior figure who was facing those accusations would have to act in some way.

‘When we found out that one of our MPs was facing these accusations – without prejudging anything we decided to appoint an independent KC to have a look at the situation.

Musk and Trump are becoming increasingly unpopular in the UK thanks to their weakening of American support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Mr Farage has made much of his closeness to both men, even though Musk suggested he be replaced as Reform leader by Lowe in January.

However, the Financial Times today reported he could be eying up funding a new rival right wing party in the UK – potentially led by Lowe.

Reform is meant to be preparing for the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby after disgraced MP Mike Amesbury said he will quit the Commons after punching a constituent.

The former Labour MP was given a 10-week prison term, which was reduced to a suspended sentence after an appeal, leaving him at risk of being ousted from Parliament through the recall process.

The MP told the BBC he would ‘step aside at the earliest opportunity’, meaning a vote could be held at the same time as the local elections on May 1.

Mr Lowe used an interview with the Dan Wootton Outspoken programme to once again deny the accusations against him, branding them ‘absolute drivel’.

He pointed out that the allegations relating to Zia Yusuf, Reform party chairman, weren’t lodged with police until last week despite them allegedly happening in December.

This was after an interview appeared in the Daily Mail last week in which Mr Lowe criticised Mr Farage’s leadership.

He admitted having a ‘robust debate’ with Mr Yusuf on December 13, but denied threatening physical violence.

The MP was asked whether he thought the fallout could be linked to X owner and key member of Donald Trump’s administration Elon Musk, who last year expressed doubt about Mr Farage’s leadership and suggested he might support Mr Lowe.

‘I owe a huge debt to Elon Musk because without my X account which gives me a voice, this may well have ended very differently, because I think in the past anyone who has (been), if you like, a poppy that stood up too tall has been chopped down,’ the former Southampton FC chairman said.

‘I have been thinking about it in my own mind and I sort of wonder whether in a country that I think is becoming increasingly used to lies, somebody who stands up in Parliament and tells the truth is seen as a tall poppy.’