Johnson contacted Musk on behalf of Evening Standard owner amid effort to support paper

Boris Johnson contacted Elon Musk on behalf of the Evening Standard's owner, Evgeny Lebedev, as part of an attempt to get the US tech billionaire to support the ailing newspaper, leaked files suggest.

- Jessica Elgot Henry Dyer David Pegg

Johnson's private office, which is taxpayer-subsidised, emailed an executive close to Musk in June 2024, forwarding a business proposal from Lord Lebedev.

"Dear Elon, I admire what you've done for liberty. Can the next step in the fight be putting together your AI power behind a 200-year-old trusted news voice called the London Evening Standard?" Lebedev wrote. "My thoughts are in an age of deepfakes and general confusion about information; this would be a powerful pairing. If you're up for a chat, I am up for coming to see you."

The email to the owner of X is contained in a leak from Johnson's office seen by the Guardian. The leak was obtained by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a US non-profit that archives data leaks.

The email is likely to renew questions over foreign influence in UK politics. Musk has made no secret of his desire to sway political views through his social media platform, which he has owned since 2022. He is a fierce critic of Keir Starmer, especially over immigration and the grooming gangs scandal.

While Lebedev does not expressly raise the question of investment in the Evening Standard, the request for some kind of partnership will also raise questions over foreign ownership of the UK press.

Parliament recently passed legislation placing limits on foreign ownership of media organisations, meaning foreign states can own stakes of only up to 15%, but the rules do not apply to foreign individuals.

It is unclear whether Musk responded to the business offer, which was sent a month after Lebedev announced his decision to close the daily print edition of the historic London title and rebrand it as a weekly news sheet, the Standard.