Daily Telegraph bidder linked to China spies - by Daily Telegraph

The sale of the Telegraph Media Group is facing fresh turmoil after the company's own newspaper linked its presumed new owner to the suspected ringleader of the alleged Westminster Chinese spy ring.

- Simon Goodley

Yesterday's Daily Telegraph published a 2024 photograph of the financier John Thornton shaking hands with Cai Qi, a senior member of the Chinese Communist party's ruling politburo. The accompanying article raised questions as to whether the title is being eyed as a means for China to exert foreign influence.

Thornton is the chair of RedBird Capital Partners, the private equity firm bidding for control of the media group. Cai has been described as the top lieutenant of China's president, Xi Jinping, and is suspected of receiving the British political intelligence at the heart of of the collapsed Chinese spying prosecution.

Iain Duncan Smith, the MP and former leader of the Conservative party who has been pressing for the government to launch a fresh investigation into the Telegraph takeover, wrote on X: "Let me put it plainly. The meeting between John Thornton and Cai Qi is a red flag and a serious one. It demands ... an investigation into Red-Bird's bid for the Telegraph under our media freedom laws.