Media group’s own paper publishes photo of RedBird Capital chair with alleged spy ring chief
The sale of the Telegraph Media Group has been thrown into fresh turmoil after the company’s own newspaper linked its presumed new owner to the suspected ringleader of the alleged Chinese spy ring in Westminster.
Wednesday’s edition of the Daily Telegraph published a 2024 photograph of the financier John Thornton shaking hands with Cai Qi, a senior member of the Chinese Communist party’s ruling politburo, raising questions as to whether the British title is being eyed as a means for China to exert foreign influence.
Thornton is the chair of RedBird Capital Partners, the private equity firm bidding for control of the media group. Cai has been described as the top lieutenant of China’s president, Xi Jinping, and has been outed as the suspect receiving British political intelligence that formed part of the collapsed Chinese spying prosecution.
Iain Duncan Smith, the MP and former leader of the Conservative party who has been pressing for the government to launch a fresh investigation into the latest Telegraph takeover, wrote on X: “Let me put it plainly. The meeting between John Thornton and Cai Qi is a red flag and a serious one. It demands that the culture secretary, @lisanandy, trigger an investigation into RedBird’s bid for The Telegraph under our media freedom laws.
