Errol Musk, the father of tech tycoon Elon Musk, has revealed he took Tommy Robinson to Russia on a trip paid for by the Musk Foundation.
Errol said the family foundation took Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, on the trip, during which he met Russian business leaders last month. The Musk Foundation, a private philanthropic organisation founded by Elon and his brother Kimbal, covered the costs, Errol told the Guardian.
The Moscow hotel video
Yaxley-Lennon shared a video of himself alongside Errol Musk in a luxury Moscow hotel, where the pair insisted “Russia is not the enemy of Britain.” It was from the upward-of-£300-a-night Metropol hotel that Yaxley-Lennon also called for his supporters to take to the streets in Belfast following a knife attack, sharing a list of locations where protests were to take place.
Errol Musk’s own Russia connections
Errol, 78, who lives in South Africa, said he first became aware of Robinson while he was imprisoned for breaching a contempt of court order. Errol has previously expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin, having made multiple visits to Russia in recent years, and has described Putin as an example of a strong leader.
The wider pattern
Yaxley-Lennon has been a vocal supporter of Putin’s government in recent years, including co-founding the English Defence League in 2009 before his current phase of activity, and has been interviewed by the Brotherhood of Academists, a far-right group founded by sanctioned oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. The Russian government and its proxies appear to be forging links with a range of other far-right European figures, including influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate.
What happened when he returned
On his return from Russia, Yaxley-Lennon was detained by police at Heathrow Airport, stopped under section 3 of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. Yaxley-Lennon claimed police seized his iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phone, and subsequently asked his supporters for funding.
Why the foundation link matters
The Musk Foundation is best known publicly for philanthropic giving associated with the Musk family name, making Errol’s confirmation that it directly funded a Russia trip for a British far-right activist a notable detail. It places a formal financial connection, rather than simply personal or ideological sympathy, between an organisation carrying the Musk name and Yaxley-Lennon’s activities, at a moment when Elon Musk’s own wealth and influence over British and global politics has already been the subject of extensive scrutiny, including warnings from economists about the unprecedented scale of his personal fortune and its potential political leverage.
The Belfast timing
The fact that Yaxley-Lennon issued calls for street protests in Belfast, following a knife attack, from a Moscow hotel room funded by the Musk Foundation adds a specific and uncomfortable dimension to the story. It places the organisation of UK domestic unrest, in response to a serious violent crime, directly alongside a foreign trip connected to a government whose interference in Western democracies has been repeatedly documented by British and European security services. Whether the Musk Foundation was aware of, or intended to fund, this kind of activity as part of the trip has not been addressed by Errol Musk’s comments to the Guardian.
A consistent pattern of contested behaviour
This is not the first time Yaxley-Lennon’s conduct abroad or online has generated controversy in recent weeks. He was recently filmed angrily confronting a Metro journalist over a story about a campaign to remove his podcast from Spotify, and faced widespread mockery online after attributing visibly erratic behaviour during a television interview with Karl Stefanovic to hay fever. Taken together with the Russia trip and subsequent Heathrow detention, a pattern is emerging of increasingly scrutinised international activity, funded and facilitated through a range of connections that extend well beyond Robinson’s domestic UK support base.
What remains unanswered
Several questions remain open. The Guardian’s reporting establishes that the Musk Foundation funded the trip and that Robinson met unspecified Russian business leaders, but does not detail exactly who those figures were, what was discussed, or whether any further financial or organisational relationship exists beyond this single funded visit. Errol Musk’s own long-standing admiration for Putin, and his description of the Russian leader as an example of strong leadership, adds context to why he personally may have been willing to arrange and fund such a trip, though it does not establish what Elon Musk himself, as co-founder of the foundation, knew about or approved regarding this specific use of its funds.
The detention of Yaxley-Lennon at Heathrow under counter-terrorism legislation immediately upon his return signals that UK authorities regarded the trip, or its context, as warranting formal security scrutiny, independent of the funding source. Whether further details of the visit, its Russian contacts, or the foundation’s role emerge in the coming weeks remains to be seen.
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