The former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has approached a number of billionaire backers about financing a potential £600m bid for the Telegraph newspapers and Spectator magazine.
Zahawi, who decided not to stand again in his Stratford-on-Avon seat at the general election, was originally involved as a “middleman”, introducing a United Arab Emirates-backed consortium to the Barclay family, which enabled them to repay £1.16bn in loans and take back control of the debt-laden business from Lloyds Banking Group last year.
