“Cheers for Clearing the Barclays Tab, Now Jog On” – UAE’s £1bn Telegraph Flop Ends in £500m Fire Sale

London, November 22, 2025 – In a decisive victory for British media sovereignty, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), owner of the Daily Mail, has secured a £500 million deal to acquire The Daily Telegraph and its sister titles from the Abu Dhabi-backed Redbird IMI consortium. The announcement, made early Saturday morning, ends a controversial two-year saga that saw one of Britain’s most influential newspapers fall under temporary Middle Eastern control.

The sale follows the UK government’s successful blocking of Redbird IMI’s original bid to take full ownership in 2024, citing serious concerns over foreign state influence on a major national news outlet. Redbird IMI — a joint venture between American private equity firm RedBird Capital and International Media Investments (IMI), an Abu Dhabi sovereign fund controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s Deputy Prime Minister — had seized control of the paper in late 2023 to repay a £600 million debt owed by its former owners, the Barclay family.

During that period, alarm bells rang across Westminster and Fleet Street. Critics warned of a creeping “UAE grip” on British journalism, with IMI originally planning to retain a significant minority stake even after any sale. Many feared that Emirati ownership could soften or shape coverage of sensitive issues — from Gulf foreign policy and human rights abuses to lucrative UK–UAE trade and defence deals — undermining the paper’s historic editorial independence.

That threat is now over.

With DMGT — led by the unequivocally British Lord Jonathan Rothermere, whose family has owned the Daily Mail since 1896 — stepping in, The Telegraph returns firmly to domestic hands. Rothermere hailed the acquisition as a “homecoming” for one of Britain’s greatest newspapers, pledging major new investment in the newsroom and an ambitious push to turn The Telegraph into a global digital powerhouse, with particular emphasis on the United States market.

“The Daily Telegraph is Britain’s finest broadsheet,” Rothermere said. “My family and I have an enduring love of newspapers and the journalists who make them great. Chris Evans is an outstanding editor, and we will give him the resources he needs to take this title to new heights — while guaranteeing its complete editorial independence.”

The deal folds The Telegraph into DMGT’s growing stable alongside Metro, i, and New Scientist, creating one of the most formidable right-leaning media empires in the English-speaking world.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is expected to review the transaction under existing public interest and foreign ownership rules, but with no state-backed foreign entity involved this time, the process is widely anticipated to be swift and straightforward.

For Telegraph journalists and readers alike, the mood is one of relief and optimism. After years of uncertainty and the looming shadow of Gulf influence, Britain’s newspaper of record is once again British-owned, British-run, and free to hold power to account without fear or favour.

The message from this deal is clear: some institutions are too important to fall into foreign hands. The Telegraph is coming home.