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The Cabinet Office has admitted the Prime Minister communicated over Newcastle’s takeover with a special advisor on Saudi Arabia, but is refusing to release emails and messages they shared. In its response to this newspaper’s freedom of information request, 10 Downing Street claimed that revealing the correspondence could undermine the UK’s role in the Middle East.
The letter to this newspaper said: ‘The Cabinet Office recognises there is a general public interest in openness. We have weighed that interest against a stronger public interest in the United Kingdom being able successfully to pursue our national interests.
‘Releasing information which was shared with the UK on a confidential basis could undermine the UK’s role in the Middle East region and elsewhere. If we want to continue to play an influencing role, then our bilateral relationships need to be protected.’
The Premier League finally agreed to allow the sale of Newcastle in October 2021 after months of wrangling, when it ruled that Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is accused by US intelligence of approving the operation to capture or kill the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, would not have to submit himself to the owners’ and directors’ test.
It is known Bin Salman personally contacted Johnson in June 2020, warning him in a text that Anglo-Saudi relations would be damaged unless the £300m sale to the wealth fund PIF was approved. Bin Salman is chairman of PIF, which owns 80 per cent of Newcastle. He told Johnson then: ‘We expect the Premier League to reconsider and correct its wrong conclusion.’"
So the sale was approved because they wouldnt be state owned yet Boris Johnson was told relations would be damaged if the sale didnt go ahead? How bizarre...
