The world’s richest man has become fixated on child sexual exploitation in deindustrialized English towns—much of which took place more than a decade ago.

In the early hours of New Year’s Day, Elon Musk lobbed a series of angry posts and allegations towards British Prime Minister Keir Starmer – engulfing his government in a very public fight that it really doesn’t want.

In a barrage of posts rife with misinformation, he revived questions about a child sex abuse scandal, vilified the prime minister and defended a jailed far-right agitator.

Elon Musk has been tweeting incessantly for days about a grooming gang scandal that is setting the political weather in Britain, but the origins of how it came onto the radar of the world's richest man can be traced back a decade.