Government to publish Telegraph probes amid Burnham Abu Dhabi row

The government is to publish the long-delayed results of probes into Abu Dhabi's failed attempt to buy The Daily Telegraph - a move which risks stoking tensions with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) amid a row over Andy Burnham's links to the owners of Manchester City.

Sky News has learnt that a report written in 2024 by Ofcom, the media regulator, which assessed the public interest implications of a takeover of the Telegraph newspaper titles by RedBird IMI is to be released as early as Friday.

The Ofcom report is said to have concluded that a takeover of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph by RedBird IMI would be contrary to the public interest because of concerns that the newspapers' editorial independence would risk being compromised by the IMI stake and its links to the UAE government.

International Media Investments (IMI) is backed by the UAE's deputy prime minister and ultimate owner of Manchester City Football Club, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

It is the first time the explosive contents of the report will have become public, with the bilateral relationship between the two countries likely to be further strained by the timing of the decision to publish them.

A separate report submitted to the government in 2024 by the Competition and Markets Authority is expected to be published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) simultaneously.

The publication of the Telegraph takeover probes has been delayed for two-and-a-half years, with the Telegraph itself reporting last week reporting that Baroness Mackenzie, a junior DCMS minister, had committed in parliament to the reports being published "shortly".

The emergence of the documents and their findings threaten to escalate tensions between Mr Burnham's government and the UAE, with billions of pounds of Gulf investment in Britain reportedly already at risk.

The prime minister has pledged to publish full details of his own dealings with the owners of Manchester City Football Club following the former Premier League champions' guilty verdict on 115 charges of financial misconduct.

The club and its owners have denied any wrongdoing and launched an appeal against the judgement by an independent commission.

Mr Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester, initially said he would be "really concerned" if the Abu Dhabi royals who own Manchester City were to relinquish ownership of the club.

A Downing Street spokesman subsequently sought to clarify the PM's remarks, saying: "As the prime minister made clear, the initial judgement is serious and there can't be any suggestion that anyone is above the rules.

Further revelations in the last fortnight about property deals in Manchester and about Mr Burnham's engagements with Khaldoon Al Mubarak - the Manchester City chairman and head of Abu Dhabi state investment fund Mubadala - have been seized on by the PM's political opponents.

The broadening of the controversy is likely to have been one factor in the decision to publish the Ofcom and CMA reports at such a sensitive moment for diplomatic relations between Britain and the UAE.

Abu Dhabi investors own swathes of the UK's infrastructure, with pledges of billions of pounds more to come through sovereign and other investment partnerships.

The disclosure of concerns at the media regulator about the implications of a takeover of the Telegraph newspapers by RedBird IMI will, in some respects, be unsurprising.

Press freedom campaigners, Mps and many Telegraph journalists, opposed the deal, citing prospective interference by a foreign state in the British free press.

A joint venture between Sky - the immediate parent company of Sky News - and IMI which saw the two companies jointly own Sky News Arabia was unwound earlier this year when IMI agreed to take full ownership of the business.

The Sky News brand continues to be used in the Middle East under a licensing agreement with IMI.

During the Telegraph bidding process, RedBird IMI pledged that the newspapers' journalists would have editorial freedom, underpinned by legally binding undertakings.

Those came after Ms Nandy's predecessor, Lucy Frazer, issued a public interest intervention notice to subject the takeover to further scrutiny.

RedBird, the US-based sports, media and entertainment investor, was to have been a minority backer of the deal, with IMI owning a 75% stake in the joint venture.

The transaction fell apart when Ms Nandy intervened to restrict foreign state ownership of British newspapers.

A new deal was then stitched together which included funding from Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere and Sir Leonard Blavatnik, the billionaire owner of sports streaming platform DAZN.

Under that deal, Abu Dhabi-based IMI would have taken a 15% stake in Telegraph Media Group.

That prompted RedBird Capital to seek to take full ownership of the Telegraph itself, but that deal faltered when the US-based investor abandoned the £500m deal amid further unrest within the Telegraph newsroom.

Months of further negotiations followed, with the Daily Mail's owner initially moving into pole position to acquire the right-leaning broadsheets.

In March this year, however, the German publisher Axel Springer swooped to outbid DMGT with a £575m bid, leading the Telegraph into German ownership for the first time in its history.

A source close to the culture secretary denied suggestions that she had sought to suppress the publication of the Ofcom and CMA reports.

The DCMS and Ofcom both declined to comment.

(c) Sky News 2026: Government to publish Telegraph probes amid Burnham Abu Dhabi row