Johnson denies helping Saudi in Newcastle bid

LONDON • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson denies intervening to try to help a Saudi Arabia-led bid for Newcastle, Downing Street said yesterday, amid a widening Westminster scandal over corporate lobbying.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent private WhatsApp messages to Mr Johnson in June last year demanding that the English Premier League "reconsider and correct its wrong conclusion" in blocking the failed takeover, the Daily Mail said on Wednesday.

Mr Johnson's official spokesman refused to comment on "private conversations", but conceded that he did instruct senior aide Eddie Lister to look into the Newcastle bid by a Saudi-backed consortium.

"The prime minister asked Lord Lister to check on the progress of the talks as a potential major foreign investment in the UK," the spokesman said. "He didn't ask him to intervene. The prime minister didn't intervene. The government was not involved in any point in these takeover talks."

The thwarted takeover is currently subject to legal arbitration in London, after Newcastle owner Mike Ashley disputed the Premier League's conclusion that the consortium - which included the Public Investment Fund, the gulf kingdom's sovereign wealth fund - was effectively an arm of the Saudi state controlled by Mohammed.

Former British prime minister David Cameron has already been ensnared in a broadening scandal over the collapse of finance company Greensill Capital, whose founder Lex Greensill was keen to build more business with the Saudis.

A photograph emerged earlier this week of the pair enjoying a "desert camping trip" in Saudi Arabia in January last year, during which they met Mohammed.

Cameron, who became a paid adviser to Greensill after leaving office in 2016, has insisted he raised human rights concerns with the Saudi de facto ruler, but Mr Johnson has launched an independent probe into the private lobbying of ministers prior to the collapse of the financial services firm. Three committees in the UK parliament have also opened their own investigations.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE