Uber lobbyists met with George Osborne, Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid and Priti Patel during ride-sharing app’s global expansion as leak of 124,000 emails and texts exposes tech firm’s underhand tactics
- The secret meetings with British MPs took place between 2014 and 2016
- Mr Osborne, Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Sajid Javid and Ed Vaizey named
- Uber had drawn up an ‘outreach grid’ of MPs and officials they met with
- In 2016 Transport for London dropped plans for increased regulation of firms such as Uber
- There were protests by black cab drivers. George Osborne was targetted
Six or more Tory ministers were lobbied by Uber including then chancellor George Osborne as well as colleagues Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, Sajid Javid and Ed Vaizey as the app tried to expand in London.
The secret meetings with British MPs between 2014 and 2016 raise more questions about what pressure was exerted on then Mayor of London Boris Johnson to dilute proposed minicab reforms – sparking a war with the capital’s black cab drivers.
The meetings with top Tories were exposed in an unprecedented leak of 124,000 confidential documents including texts and emails that have laid bare the underhand tactics that drove Uber’s rapid global expansion.
George Osborne attended a secret meeting with Uber in California in August 2014. The ‘small dinner’ was said to be organised by Rachel Whetstone, the then chancellor’s friend and wife of David Cameron’s No 10 policy chief Steve Hilton.
Executives from Google, one of Uber’s main investors, including co-founder Larry Page also attended the soiree along with the then Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick, the documents leaked to The Guardian and the BBC show.
An email to Mr Kalanick said of the dinner: ‘We were going to get you in front of Osborne when you’re in London, but this is a much more private affair, no hanger-on officials or staffers … I think it would be a good use of your time’. A note from a different meeting in Davos described Osborne as a ‘strong advocate’ for the firm.
The ‘undeclared’ meetings took place after Boris Johnson, as Mayor of London, had promised to launch a review that could have limited Uber’s expansion in the capital. Mr Johnson ultimately abandoned his review, and Uber was able to increase its number of drivers in London.
Susan Hawley, the executive director of Spotlight on Corruption, said today: ‘You or I don’t get to have dinner with George Osborne and bend his ear about what we would like done with the economy. It perfectly encapsulates the problem with lobbying and how vested interests capture ministers and decision-making.’ Ministers insist rules were followed, the BBC said.
George Osborne attended a dinner with Uber reportedly attended by former CEO Travis Kalanick who was told it would be a ‘good use of your time’ in a leaked email
Uber’s lobbying coincided with a push to expand in London and a victory that saw increased regulations on private hire vehicles dropped in the capital
The Treasury never disclosed the meeting but a spokesman for Mr Osborne, now an investment banker, told The Guardian: ‘Far from being secret, it was the explicit and publicly announced policy of the coalition government to meet with global tech businesses, persuade them to invest in Britain, and create jobs here. All business meetings were properly declared.’
Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London and now PM, said at the time he had been contacted by ‘rampant, frothing, free-market Conservatives’ who wanted to stop regulations being tightened in London for private-hire vehicles
Rachel Whetstone’s lawyers said the dinner was arranged at Mr Osborne’s request and that she ‘never sought to exploit or take improper advantage of personal relationships with UK politicians and/or former government ministers’.
Within months of that meeting she would leave Google and become Uber’s senior vice-president of policy and communications.
Today’s leak, which will be subject to a Panorama show later today, revealed that Uber had drawn up an ‘outreach grid’ of MPs and officials they met with.
As they plotted UK expansion there was a ‘No 10 visit’ in July 2014 to see Matt Hancock, Sajid Javid and and Tory advisers. Michael Gove, Priti Patel and Ed Vaizey also met with Uber, according to the leak. None of these encounters were disclosed by their departments, The Guardian claims.
Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London, said at the time he had been contacted by ‘rampant, frothing, free-market Conservatives’ who wanted to stop regulations being tightened in London for private-hire vehicles. In 2016 Transport for London (TfL) abandoned the proposals, in a major win for Uber, which now dominates in the capital. The decision sparked fury among the capital’s black cab firms who said they were being robbed of business.
The leaked documents span a five-year period when Uber was run by its co-founder Travis Kalanick. The documents, obtained by the Guardian, reveal how Uber’s meteoric rise was fuelled by the breaking of taxi regulations and laws.
A senior Uber executive wrote in an email exposed by the leak that the firm ‘should avoid making antagonistic statements’ as it was not then legal in many countries. Another said the ride hailing app had ‘officially become pirates’ in its efforts to ‘avoid enforcement’.
One responded to attempts to shut the business down in Thailand and India by saying: ‘Sometimes we have problems because, well, we’re just f****** illegal.’
And the leaks lay bare the access senior Uber executives had to politicians such as Mr Osborne, as well as French president Emmanuel Macron, and the then US vice president Joe Biden.
Mr Kalanick met Mr Biden at Davos when he was Barack Obama’s vice president. A speech he made was then apparently amended to refer to Uber as having given millions of workers ‘freedom to work as many hours as they wish’.
At the same meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Kalanick had a meeting with Mr Osborne, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. A note from the meeting described Osborne as a ‘strong advocate’ for the firm.
The leak reveals that Matt Hancock and Sajid Javid also met with Uber officials
Michael Gove, Priti Patel and Ed Vaizey also met with Uber, according to today’s leak
The Davos meeting was declared, but the leaked files reveal a further six meetings between the company and UK ministers that were not.
Mr Osborne said it was the Government’s policy to meet with global firms to secure investment in Britain.
The leaks detailed how Uber’s model relied on applying influence on powerful officials through intermediaries or seeking private meetings with politicians. It also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on academic research espousing the benefits of its model, which relies on gig workers.
In one instance Mr Kalanick risked a backlash by urging Uber executives in France to encourage drivers to stage counter protests amid taxi strikes and riots in Paris. He was warned drivers would potentially face violence but responded by saying it was ‘worth it’ and that ‘violence guarantees success’.
Another practice highlighted by the leaks was the use of a ‘kill switch’, which cut access to the company’s systems during raids by authorities. It was deployed at least 12 times during raids in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Hungary and Romania.
In response to the leaks, Uber said there had been thousands of stories of its ‘mistakes’ before 2019, when it appointed new chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi.
Its head of marketing and public affairs Jill Hazelbaker said: ‘We have not and will not make excuses for past behaviour that is clearly not in line with our present values. Instead, we ask the public to judge us by what we’ve done over the last five years and what we will do in the years to come.’
Uber used attacks on its staff by taxi drivers scared of losing their jobs to pressure politicians to bend the rules during their global expansion, leaked files reveal.
Bosses at the ride-hailing app managed the chaos of protests over their growth in European nations to garner public support, the documents show.
They also allegedly tried to cozy up to politicians including Barack Obama, Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron to lobby them in favour of the firm.
The bombshell claims come in 124,000 of explosive files leaked to dozens of media outlets about its expansion from 2013 to 2017.
The ‘Uber Files’ paints a picture of executives acting like ‘pirates’ as they shoved the app down the throats of world leaders and tried to dominate the global market.
In one shocking instance, former CEO Travis Kalanick is said to have told other leaders: ‘Violence guarantee(s) success.’ He was understood to be referring to counter protests against taxi drivers furious at the app being launched in Paris in 2016.
The documents call into question whether the firm used illegal tactics to dodge restrictions in different countries and gain political support.
In this file photo taken on January 26, 2016 Paris taxi drivers gather during a nation-wide strike by France’s 5.6 million-strong civil servants, in Paris, to protest against job cuts, competition from taxi app company Uber and other non-licensed private hire cabs, and for pay rise
A study of more than 100,000 Uber documents and records show the company employed ethically dubious tactics as it sought to assert early dominance in the ride-share industry
In this file photo taken on June 26, 2015, taxis blocks the area of Porte Maillot in west Paris, with drivers furious at what they see as unfair competition from Uber, which puts customers in touch with private drivers at prices lower than those of traditional taxis.
The cache includes unvarnished text and email exchanges between executives, with standouts from co-founder and former chief executive Travis Kalanick, who was forced to resign in 2017 following accusations of brutal management practices and multiple episodes of sexual and psychological harassment at the company.
Uber’s rapid expansion leaned on subsidized drivers and discounted fares that undercut the taxi industry, and ‘often without seeking licenses to operate as a taxi and livery service,’ reported The Washington Post, one of the media outlets involved in the probe.
Drivers across Europe had faced violent retaliation as taxi drivers felt their livelihoods threatened. The investigation found that ‘in some instances, when drivers were attacked, Uber executives pivoted quickly to capitalize’ to seek public and regulatory support, the Post said.
According to the Guardian, Uber has adopted similar tactics in European countries including Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, mobilizing drivers and encouraging them to complain to the police when they were victims of violence, in order to use media coverage to obtain concessions from the authorities.
A spokesperson for Kalanick strongly denied the findings as a ‘false agenda,’ saying he ‘never suggested that Uber should take advantage of violence at the expense of driver safety.’
Uber, however, placed the blame Sunday for previously publicized ‘mistakes’ made by leadership under Kalanick.
‘We’ve moved from an era of confrontation to one of collaboration, demonstrating a willingness to come to the table and find common ground with former opponents, including labor unions and taxi companies,’ it said, noting that his replacement, Dara Khosrowshahi, ‘was tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates.’
The investigation also accuses Uber of having worked to evade regulatory investigations by leveraging a technological edge, the Post wrote.
It described an instance when Kalanick implemented a ‘kill switch’ to remotely cut off access of devices in an Amsterdam office to Uber’s internal systems during a raid by authorities.
‘Please hit the kill switch ASAP,’ he wrote in an email to an employee. ‘Access must be shut down in AMS (Amsterdam).’
Kalanick spokesperson Devon Spurgeon said the former chief executive ‘never authorized any actions or programs that would obstruct justice in any country.’
Kalanick ‘did not create, direct or oversee these systems set up by legal and compliance departments and has never been charged in any jurisdiction for obstruction of justice or any related offense,’ she said.
But the investigation charged that Uber’s actions flouted laws and that executives were aware, citing one joking that they had become ‘pirates.’
In this file photo taken on May 08, 2019 drivers take part in a rally demanding more job security and livable incomes, at Uber and Lyft New York City Headquarters – as the company took advantage of the turmoil in the taxi industry to rally drivers to eventually work for them before expanding worldwide
Uber will resume its ride share service in some major U.S. cities after halting the service in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic
The reports say the files reveal Uber also lobbied governments to aid its expansion, finding in particular an ally in France’s Emmanuel Macron, who was economy minister from 2014 to 2016 and is now the country’s president.
The company believed Macron would encourage regulators ‘to be ‘less conservative’ in their interpretation of rules limiting the company’s operations,’ the Post said.
Macron was an open supporter of Uber and the idea of turning France into a ‘start-up nation’ in general, but the leaked documents suggest that the minister’s support even sometimes clashed with the leftist government’s policies.
The revelations sparked indignation among leftist politicians, denouncing the Uber-Macron links as against ‘all our rules’ and ‘looting the country.’
The Uber Files also say the company cut its tax bill by millions of dollars by sending profits through Bermuda and other tax havens, then ‘sought to deflect attention from its tax liabilities by helping authorities collect taxes from its drivers.″
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