Why is Elon Musk obsessed with British politics?
The American billionaire has levelled criticism at the Prime Minister, as Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana explains
Elon Musk's dislike of Keir Starmer is off the scale. The world's richest man, who is about to become a key player in the Trump administration, has been berating the British prime minister since the moment he won July's general election.
First, he was "two-tier-Kier" based on Musk pushing a conspiracy theory that UK police were treating far-right protesters differently to minorities.
Next Musk was supporting farmers hit by an inheritance tax change, then demanding a fresh general election after Labour performed badly in the polls.
In the last two days, his hatred of Starmer has spilled out in a series of posts relating to the grooming gangs in places like Oldham and Rotherham - a scandal in which perpetrators mainly of south Asian heritage - were found to be abusing teenage girls.
The crimes were heavily covered in the media (including the suggestion that authorities failed to act quickly enough because of cultural sensitivities) and have been subject to a series of inquiries.
Nevertheless, on Thursday Musk took the extraordinary step of suggesting the Home Office minister, Jess Phillips, "deserves to be in prison", for rejecting a request from Oldham Council for a Home Office backed local inquiry into the scandal.
The truth of the matter is far more nuanced than Musk would like to engage with.
Oldham have already held a local inquiry, but urged by victim groups to go further they requested that central government carry one out.
Phillips' response was to say she didn't believe that Whitehall should get involved, but she also backed Oldham to carry out its own local inquiry (a position the council seem happy with according to senior sources).
On Friday, he has gone further, claiming Starmer was "complicit in the rape of Britain" as director for public prosecutions, and saying he must face charges for complicity "in the worst mass crime in the history of Britain".
What is raising eyebrows in government about the row is that the scandal is years old, has resulted in prosecutions (which began when Starmer was Director of Public Prosecutions), and has led to several inquiries - both local and a broader national one on child sexual exploitation.
The approach was put in place by the previous Conservative government and yet its leader, Kemi Badenoch, turbo-boosted Musk's arguments by throwing in her own demand for a national inquiry.
But Musk wasn't stopping there. He also began pushing for the far-right, anti Islam activist Tommy Robinson to be released from jail.
Robinson was imprisoned because he repeatedly ignored a court order to stop defaming a Syrian refugee (in fact he made a film repeating the defamation that was circulated to tens of millions of people).
On that point - has he gone too far? Nigel Farage, who is no doubt delighted that Musk has also claimed that only Reform UK can save Britain, is no fan of Robinson's - and quit UKIP because it had become too obsessed with Islam and had hired Robinson as an adviser. Farage does not want to be associated with the activist.
From where has Musk become so obsessed with Britain - and why does he hate Starmer? Some think that his views are a result of his obsession with his own social media website, X.
Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (who has clashed with Musk) told me: "Elon Musk is the prime example of how the Twitter algorithm radicalises people into believing all kind of whacky and potentially dangerous conspiracy theories."
He also argued that Musk had one clear driving motivation.
"Elon Musk can sound irrational at times but he is focused on enriching himself. He sees the key to that as deregulation so that his companies can be unleashed to do as they like."
It certainly is true that a running theme in Musk's commentary is this idea that people in Britain are being jailed for free speech, while claiming that those who have committed historic sex crimes are not.
And so his own interest as a tech billionaire is threaded through his critique. Perhaps his concern is that a centre-left government in Britain will move to further regulate technology companies like his.
After all, it is not just the UK that has caught his attention.
Musk has also waded into German affairs, with strong-backing for the far right AfD. Musk's views seem to be strongly driven by anti Islamist views, anti migrant views and a dislike of progressive governments.
But some think the rightwing administrations he is backing may not offer the deregulation he seeks.
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