Telegraph sale: Don’t get ‘sentimental,’ UK minister warns, as Tories fear UAE buy-up
Minister seeks to allay Tory concerns ahead of a major investment summit on Monday.
There are mounting calls for the government to intervene in the proposed acquisition of the 200-year-old Conservative Party staple on press freedom grounds
| Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
BY STEFAN BOSCIA
NOVEMBER 26, 2023
LONDON — Britain’s investment minister warned critics of a controversial attempt to sell the Daily Telegraph newspaper to a fund backed by the United Arab Emirates not to get “sentimental about some of our so-called treasured assets.”
Amid mounting calls for the government to intervene in the proposed acquisition of the 200-year-old Conservative Party staple on press freedom grounds, Dominic Johnson told POLITICO the U.K. needs to remain an “open economy.”
And he suggested he would not oppose the sale of a national newspaper to the UAE as long as the proper “judicial processes” are followed.
Lloyds Bank has agreed to a deal involving the effective takeover of the Telegraph and the Spectator — another favorite of grassroots Conservatives — by Redbird IMI, an investment vehicle controlled by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.
The deal has sparked fierce resistance from some Conservative MPs concerned about the right-leaning newspaper’s editorial freedom. They point to the UAE’s poor domestic record on press freedom.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said last week that she was “minded” to intervene in the takeover by launching an official review by two watchdogs, but no final decision has been taken.
Johnson, who will welcome senior figures from the UAE and other Gulf states at Monday’s Global Investment Summit in London, said “the UAE is a first class and extremely well run country” and that he had “always been immensely impressed by the caliber of leadership there.”
“My view is that we remain an open economy and it’s very important we remain an open economy if we’re to have the wealth and investment to power this country,” he said.
“My formula is always to revert to ‘what is going to make this country richer and more prosperous and secure?’”
“We can be quite sentimental about some of our so-called treasured assets,” Johnson added. “The reality is that media and information has moved on and clearly most of us today don’t buy a physical newspaper or necessarily go to a traditional news source.”
Monday’s Global Investment Summit brings together chief executives of some of the largest financial firms on the planet, including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other ministers will spend the day trying to sell Britain as an investment destination to the private sector, while also trying to close multi-billion-pound investment deals with foreign countries.
“I want to use the investment summit to showcase the U.K. in terms of science and technology leadership, to do deals and use it as a fulcrum point to generate many millions of pounds worth of investment into the U.K. ... and expose all my colleagues to the investment needs of the top 200 business people in the world,” Johnson said.
BY STEFAN BOSCIA
NOVEMBER 26, 2023
LONDON — Britain’s investment minister warned critics of a controversial attempt to sell the Daily Telegraph newspaper to a fund backed by the United Arab Emirates not to get “sentimental about some of our so-called treasured assets.”
Amid mounting calls for the government to intervene in the proposed acquisition of the 200-year-old Conservative Party staple on press freedom grounds, Dominic Johnson told POLITICO the U.K. needs to remain an “open economy.”
And he suggested he would not oppose the sale of a national newspaper to the UAE as long as the proper “judicial processes” are followed.
Lloyds Bank has agreed to a deal involving the effective takeover of the Telegraph and the Spectator — another favorite of grassroots Conservatives — by Redbird IMI, an investment vehicle controlled by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund.
The deal has sparked fierce resistance from some Conservative MPs concerned about the right-leaning newspaper’s editorial freedom. They point to the UAE’s poor domestic record on press freedom.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said last week that she was “minded” to intervene in the takeover by launching an official review by two watchdogs, but no final decision has been taken.
Johnson, who will welcome senior figures from the UAE and other Gulf states at Monday’s Global Investment Summit in London, said “the UAE is a first class and extremely well run country” and that he had “always been immensely impressed by the caliber of leadership there.”
“My view is that we remain an open economy and it’s very important we remain an open economy if we’re to have the wealth and investment to power this country,” he said.
“My formula is always to revert to ‘what is going to make this country richer and more prosperous and secure?’”
“We can be quite sentimental about some of our so-called treasured assets,” Johnson added. “The reality is that media and information has moved on and clearly most of us today don’t buy a physical newspaper or necessarily go to a traditional news source.”
Monday’s Global Investment Summit brings together chief executives of some of the largest financial firms on the planet, including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other ministers will spend the day trying to sell Britain as an investment destination to the private sector, while also trying to close multi-billion-pound investment deals with foreign countries.
“I want to use the investment summit to showcase the U.K. in terms of science and technology leadership, to do deals and use it as a fulcrum point to generate many millions of pounds worth of investment into the U.K. ... and expose all my colleagues to the investment needs of the top 200 business people in the world,” Johnson said.
Academic tortured in UAE calls for delay to sale of The Telegraph
Patrick Sawer
Sun, 26 November 2023
Matthew Hedges warned The Telegraph could lose its independence - Christopher Pledger for the Telegraph
A British academic jailed and tortured in the United Arab Emirates after being falsely accused of spying has criticised the bid by an Abu Dhabi-led investment fund to buy The Telegraph.
Matthew Hedges, who was sentenced to life in jail in November 2018 after being arrested at Dubai airport, before being eventually released later that month, called for the UK Government to delay the proposed deal.
The RedBird IMI investment fund planning to take ownership of The Telegraph and The Spectator is led by the former CNN chief Jeff Zucker and mostly funded by Abu Dhabi royalty, whose city is the capital of the UAE.
Writing in a letter to this newspaper Mr Hedges said: “It is entirely correct and appropriate that the Government should issue a public interest intervention notice delaying the proposed deal by UAE based RedBird IMI to purchase The Telegraph.”
He added: “As a victim of torture at the hands of the UAE, simply for undertaking legitimate academic research, I personally attest to the UAE’s disregard for human rights. It would be inappropriate to surrender a trusted media outlet to a foreign state who does not themselves respect freedom of speech.”
Mr Hedges said the proposed deal was intended to increase the UAE’s “political leverage and influence” and should be stopped in order to defend British democracy.
“These titles will lose their independence. If you’re funded by a foreign state you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds,” he told BBC Newsnight on Friday.
The academic was falsely accused of spying for MI6 after being arrested at Dubai airport in May 2018, as he tried to leave the UAE.
It took a month following his arrest before Mr Hedges was even granted a meeting with a British consular officer.
During the first month of detention, Mr Hedges, who completed his PhD at Durham University, suffered prolonged interrogation and torture at the hands of the Emirate’s security services, who accused him of spying for the British government.
Earlier this year the Parliamentary Ombudsman recommended that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) apologise to Mr Hedges for failing to protect him from torture after he was arrested and pay him £1,500 in compensation.
In a statement, the UAE government said: “Mr Hedges received entirely proper care and treatment.
“He had bedding, reading materials, a television, access to family, consular officials and lawyers and extensive medical care. He was never subjected to, or threatened with, either torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment of any sort.”
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