The UAE Lobby:Subverting British democracy?

Since the Arab Spring, a highly sophisticated, aggressive and clandestine UAE political lobby has emerged to head off the threat of democracy in the Middle East. This report will, for the first time, chart the history of the lobby, explain what it consists of and how it works. We’ll examine the domestic and regional factors which saw the lobby evolve, its impact in the UK and US and how it’s used to undermine, vilify and smear groups and individuals that pose a perceived ideological and political threat to that country. This report will also see how the UAE’s lobbying has served to advance its dispute with Qatar. We’ll look at the origins of the spat and the subsequent spin wars that have erupted between the two states. As we shall discover, the UAE’s intense lobbying campaign over the last few years has helped shape UK government policy towards Muslims at home, and UK and US foreign policy in the Middle East. It has also polluted the narrative on Islam in the West, whipping up Islamophobia and hardening media coverage and public opinion against Muslims. Spinwatch has obtained leaked emails that exposes in granular detail how the UAE went about this lobbying strategy in the UK, and shows the massive effort by the Emiratis to influence the British press and court influential MPs.