Report: Boris Johnson secretly lobbied UAE for billion-dollar private venture

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson secretly lobbied the United Arab Emirates for a billion-dollar private venture, the Guardian has reported.

Bia Advisory, a "climate finance solutions" venture, hired Johnson as its "principal adviser" in early 2024, just under two years after he had resigned as prime minister and left parliament.

Johnson's staffer, one of his former Downing Street aides, reportedly told the venture that securing backing from Abu Dhabi's $300bn investment fund Mudabala was "the big prize".

Ex-ministers are banned from lobbying foreign government contacts they made in office "for the purposes of securing business".

Leaked documents obtained by the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS) and seen by the Guardian show that Johnson met Khaldoon al-Mubarak in Mubadala Tower in Abu Dhabi.

Mubarak, the chair of Manchester City and managing director of Mubadala, had been hosted at Number 10 at least three times during Johnson's premiership.

On one visit, Mubarak was part of a delegation accompanying Abu Dhabi's ruler, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. 

'Contravening ethics rules'

During the meeting with Mubarak in Abu Dhabi, Johnson reportedly raised the Bia Advisory climate finance venture.

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According to the Guardian, Johnson "appears to have lobbied a contact from his time in high office, contravening ethics rules designed to stop ex-ministers exploiting their public service".

Two months later and Johnson's role with Bia Advisory had still not been approved by Britain's Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which vets ex-ministers’ money-making.

Acoba told Johnson's office that because he "proposes to contact foreign governments", it was referring the case to the foreign secretary, then Lord David Cameron - another former prime minister.

The fate of the venture is unknown.

Bia Advisory or Mubadala did not respond to the Guardian's requests for comment.

Johnson said: "This story is rubbish. The PCDA [public duty costs allowance] has been used entirely in accordance with the rules. The Guardian should change its name to Pravda."