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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Rob Davies

French theme park firm won UK government support despite far-right ties

De Villiers United Kingdom Vladimir Putin Dominic Johnson Oxfordshire Chris Bryant Éric Zemmour France Konstantin Malofeyev DBT
People dressed as Roman centurions marching around a fake colosseum
The Roman Colosseum at the Puy du Fou theme park in France. Plans for a new site in Oxfordshire have drawn objections from local people. Photograph: Trevor Pearson/Alamy

A French business that is planning to build a vast £600m historical theme park in rural Oxfordshire won help for its plans from the previous government despite its founding family’s ties to the far right and past praise of Vladimir Putin.

Correspondence obtained under freedom of information (FoI) laws showed the Conservative peer Dominic Johnson, a business and trade minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, promised to “assist” Puy du Fou – one of France’s most popular theme parks – in finding a UK site.

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