London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Boris Johnson doesn't have Fox News but he can always rely on the Telegraph

Boris Johnson doesn't have Fox News but he can always rely on the Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph's close relationship with the prime minister is unprecedented in modern British political history.

Whenever US President Donald Trump turns on Fox News, he'll usually see a stream of positive coverage.

In the United Kingdom, there's no television equivalent because of rules requiring impartiality and accuracy from broadcasters, particularly during election campaigns. But Prime Minister Boris Johnson does have a cheerleader in print and online -The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The 164-year old publication is one of Britain's top broadsheets, widely read in political circles and often cited in the country's top TV programs. And it's long been an unabashed supporter of Johnson's Conservative Party -in 2015 the paper was fined £30,000 ($38,500) for breaking direct marketing rules after urging its readers via email to vote for the party.

Johnson has had close ties with the paper for more than three decades -at one point he was making hundreds of thousands of pounds a year writing a weekly column. He was Brussels correspondent between 1989 and 1994 where he often wrote critically about the European Union, sometimes making bogus claims about EU plans to regulate everything from condom sizes to chip flavors, according to the Financial Times.


Mutually beneficial

It's a relationship that's worked for both parties.

Like many in the industry, the Telegraph has suffered from a declining readership but it still reaches more than 20 million people in print and online per month according to The Publishers Audience Measurement Company. And it's getting a boost from Britain's planned exit from the European Union, championed by Johnson.

Editor Chris Evans said recently that Brexit was "brilliant" for the paper and it would help drive subscriber numbers up to 500,000 in 2020, 100,000 more than this year.

"Thank you Boris, thank you Brexit," Evans told the Society of Editors, according to the Press Gazette.

Some journalists at the Telegraph are much less comfortable with its relationship with Johnson, and say critical coverage of the prime minister isn't welcome.

Earlier this month, the paper splashed a Johnson column over the top half of its front page, framing it as an exclusive to launch the Conservative Party campaign. A quote from the column in huge font compared rival Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn -whom Johnson faces in a TV debate on Monday -to the brutal dictator Joseph Stalin.


British newspapers often give column space to politicians, especially those that align with their professed ideologies, said Professor Charlie Beckett, director of the Polis think tank on journalism and society at the London School of Economics.

Academics say it takes more than a newspaper's views to influence a voter, but the Telegraph's close relationship with a sitting prime minister has never been seen before in modern British history, Beckett said.

"It certainly stands out as the most enthusiastic, amiable relationship ... it's unprecedented," Beckett said, adding that it is unusual "for a politician to have such strong regular connection with a newspaper when they're in office and in power."


'Chicken feed' salary

Johnson is also a former editor of The Spectator, a weekly political and current affairs magazine owned by the same parent company as the Telegraph. He remained in that position until 2005, even after becoming a member of parliament in 2001.

A successful run for London Mayor in 2008 catapulted Johnson onto the international stage. By then he was writing a regular paid column for the Telegraph, controversially holding onto that position too while serving as mayor. He called the annual salary -at the time £250,000 ($321,000) -"chicken feed" and claimed he spent little time on the columns because he wrote "very fast."

Johnson returned to parliament in 2015 and had to give up the paid side gig when he became UK foreign secretary in 2016. But he got it back when he resigned from government two years later and was rewarded with a front page splash in the Telegraph crowing "He's coming home."


According to a recent financial disclosure to parliament, he was paid £275,000 ($353,000) in 2018 for approximately "10 hours" of work per month. The publication stopped paying Johnson when he became prime minister in July but it continues to publish his writing.


Inside the newsroom

His columns and the newspaper's broader support for the Conservative Party leader aren't universally welcomed in the Telegraph newsroom, current and former staffers told CNN Business. Some questioned paying a public figure so much while the paper struggled financially in recent years. Others said the newspaper didn't benefit from the relationship enough, in the form of scoops and exclusives.

While there is no official edict that staff cannot criticize Johnson in their articles, and political reporters at the Telegraph are respected by their peers, there is an understanding that such stories would not be welcome, multiple sources said. "It's not like there's a pretense of balance," a former reporter who asked not to be named told CNN Business.

"[The leadership] always worshiped him, they always assumed rightly or wrongly the readers worshiped him too," the former reporter added.

A spokesperson for the Telegraph said: "Like other media organizations we adhere to robust editorial standards."

Johnson's column has caused the Telegraph some headaches. Last year, he triggered a political storm after he compared Muslim women wearing full face burqas to "letterboxes." The paper has been forced to issue corrections for his columns several times, including for one published in June claiming that the United Kingdom will "become the largest and most prosperous economy in this hemisphere." Media regulators ruled it was incorrect because Johnson was extrapolating beyond the time frame covered by the forecast data, which also focused only on Europe.


'Boris boosting'

Another former Telegraph journalist who dealt with the Johnson relationship told CNN Business: "There's not a huge affection for him at a personal level because there is a view by a lot of people who dealt with him that he essentially took the money and didn't really deliver in turn."

"One column a week was absorbing enough money to pay for what, five reporters?" he said. "The constant history of the Telegraph over the last 15 years has been cuts to editorial because the owners are insistent the company had to hit the profit target, And yet you've also got him sitting in the middle of your budget, this line item of £275,000 per year for one column a week."

Johnson was "an important symbol and part of the brand," the journalist added, but the "Boris boosting" is a more recent phenomenon.

The billionaire owners of the paper, David and Frederick Barclay, are now reportedly looking to sell after the Telegraph Media Group reported a 94% drop in profit in 2019.

Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist and former editor of the far-right online outlet Breitbart, is apparently interested in buying. He told the rival Times newspaper that he wants to turn the Telegraph into an "international brand promoting populist nationalism."

It's not clear how serious Bannon is about a purchase. His spokesperson declined to comment on the record to CNN Business. But if Bannon does buy the paper, most likely with the support of other investors, the love-in with Johnson would probably continue.

In a clip from American filmmaker Alison Klayman's documentary on Bannon called "The Brink," Bannon is shown reading the Telegraph front page boasting "He's Back" while claiming he was in close contact with Johnson ahead of an important speech on Brexit.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×