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.

With 211 million followers on social media, the multibillionaire seems intent on using his global platform to rattle British politics.

Elon Musk's online attacks on former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown over grooming gangs draw on a baseless claim about a Home Office memo supposedly issued 17 years ago, research by BBC Verify has established.