Zahawi’s reported bid comes a week after Daily Mail owner DMGT pulled out of the race. It still remains to be seen whether Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon and GB News backer, will submit a bid.

Former Tory Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has approached a number of billionaire backers to assemble a £600 million bid for the Daily Telegraph.

Zahawi, who was sacked last year as Tory party chair after an investigation found he committed a serious breach by not being open about a tax probe, has approached a number of billionaire backers about helping to finance an offer for the daily newspaper, its Sunday sister title and The Spectator magazine, Sky News reports.

Sky reports: “City sources said the Reuben family, which owns a vast swathe of property assets and a stake in Newcastle United Football Club, was among those to have been sounded out by Mr Zahawi in recent weeks.

“The former Cabinet minister, who also spent time as business secretary, education secretary and as the government’s vaccines minister during the Covid-19 pandemic, is said to believe the Telegraph has significant scope to boost its profitability by expanding in the US.”

Zahawi’s reported bid comes a week after Daily Mail owner DMGT pulled out of the race. It still remains to be seen whether Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon and GB News backer, will submit a bid.

The open auction process to buy The Telegraph and The Spectator magazine is restarting after a failed bid by the Jeff Zucker-led Redbird IMI, a joint investment vehicle between US private equity firm Redbird and Abu Dhabi-backed vehicle International Media Investments.

Zahawi has not yet submitted a formal offer but is reported to be confident that he has secured enough financing firepower to table a competitive bid.

Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward

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