$540 $319 for your first year Make up your own mind. Build robust opinions on the FT's trusted journalism. Offer available until 27 February 2025. Then $75 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism. Cancel anytime during your trial.

Elon Musk’s recent obsession with UK politics is being fuelled by a series of popular accounts on his social media platform X, which the billionaire appears to be turning to for information on the grooming gangs scandal and Sir Keir Starmer’s track record as a prosecutor.

Elon Musk has called for Nigel Farage to be replaced as leader of Reform UK in a surprising U-turn hours after the British politician refused to endorse some of the tech billionaire’s latest online claims. “The Reform party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes,” Musk wrote on X, his social media site, on Sunday afternoon.

Presented by Lucy Fisher. Produced by Lulu Smyth. The executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Original music by Breen Turner and mixed by Simon Panayi. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.

Tory calls for new national probe into child rape gangs — that it did not make in government — expose opposition anxieties

Brussels has ordered Elon Musk to fully disclose recent changes made to recommendations on X, stepping up an investigation into the role of the social media platform in European politics.

Saudi Aramco is to expand its investments in lithium production, officials in Beijing are discussing using Elon Musk as a broker in a potential sale of TikTok’s US operations, and KPMG could soon begin offering legal services in the US. Plus, Syria has been flooded with imports in the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad’s ousting.

Elon Musk has reopened the national scandal surrounding gangs of men who groomed, assaulted and raped girls across England. In dozens of messages posted on his X platform over the past week he has ranged from including excerpts of court transcripts to calling Sir Keir Starmer “complicit in the rape of Britain”.

Today, our digital correspondent questions what tools the EU could use to restrict Elon Musk’s use of X as a political propaganda tool, and we have a dispatch from Ukraine on Kyiv’s renewed offensive inside Russian territory.

Elon Musk is the world’s richest person, according to Forbes, with a net worth of $237 billion as of September 2024. Experts say he is likely to become the world’s first trillionaire by 2027. Most of his fortunes are from multi-business ventures.

How the world's richest man made his billions – and became a political powerhouse - The world's richest man is getting involved in everyone's politics. How did he get here?