Boris Johnson secretly lobbied UAE for billion-dollar private venture, leak suggests

A draft letter from Boris Johnson to Khaldoon al-Mubarak said he ‘would very much welcome the opportunity to engage with your team about what we hope might prove a [tempting] investment opportunity.’ Composite: Getty Images/Guardian Design

In early 2024, a vape lobbyist, a Vote Leave campaigner and a Vienna banker set out to persuade the rulers of an oil-rich Gulf emirate to give them a billion dollars. For the plan to work, leaked files suggest, they needed a frontman who had some pull with the sheikhs. So they hired Boris Johnson.

His time as the UK’s prime minister had ended less than two years earlier and he had left parliament. But Johnson retained relationships cultivated during his time in power. The Boris Files, a cache of documents seen by the Guardian, suggest he has sought to harness these relationships for self-enrichment.