But that spring, one of Uber’s top political operatives contacted its California headquarters with some bad news about Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. “I saw Boris. The solution is against us.” The email came from Jim Messina, a former aide to Barack Obama whose clients included both Uber and the UK Conservative party. Johnson refused to meet with Uber and was sympathetic to opponents’ complaints that it was operating within the bounds of the law. A second Uber adviser would later report that Johnson had said of its controversial CEO that “it would be less politically damaging to be photographed with the leader of Isis than with Travis Kalanick.” Q&A

What are Uber records?

projection The Uber Files is a global investigation based on a trove of 124,000 documents leaked to the Guardian. The data consists of emails, iMessages and WhatsApp exchanges between the top executives of the Silicon Valley giant, as well as memos, presentations, notebooks, briefing documents and invoices. The leaked records cover 40 countries and span from 2013 to 2017, the period when Uber was aggressively expanding around the world. They reveal how the company broke the law, deceived police and regulators, exploited violence against drivers and secretly lobbied governments around the world. To facilitate a global public interest investigation, the Guardian shared the data with 180 journalists in 29 countries through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The investigation was managed and led by the Guardian with the ICIJ. In a statement, Uber said: “We have not and will not condone past behavior that is clearly inconsistent with our current values. Instead, we’re asking the public to judge us based on what we’ve done in the last five years and what we’ll do in the years to come.” Thanks for your response. In the years that followed, Uber mounted a relentless lobbying campaign to stop Johnson from bringing in tougher regulations. The scale of the effort – targeting George Osborne, David Cameron and others – was only made public through Uber files, a leak to the Guardian that revealed how the company gained backdoor access to politicians worldwide. The plan to try to influence the mayor was laid out in a 2014 strategy: “The need is for a more positive image of Uber to be conveyed to Boris, by people he trusts and respects.” The targets were members of the Tory assembly, no. 10 aides and the regulator, Transport for London (TfL), chaired by Johnson. In pursuit of this goal, he hired superstar lobbyists, including Rachel Whetstone, a close friend of Cameron and Osborne, who opened the doors. George Osborne addresses the Conservative conference in 2015. Photo: David Gadd/Allstar A senior representative of the company’s interests recalled that he believed they had “the highest possible level of access, as one of our senior executives was very close to Cameron and Osborne. “I don’t know if she was pulling the strings but she was definitely talking and texting her friends because another member of the Conservatives was a problem for us and his name was Boris Johnson. He was mayor of London and he was basically on the side of black cabs, that’s no secret. And he controlled TfL, so we needed central government, in this case Dave and George, to lean on Boris.” Whetstone doesn’t deny having occasional appropriate conversations with politicians, but her lawyers say she “did not routinely ‘lobby’ on behalf of Uber privately.” Uber’s strategy appeared to be working. After a campaign by the firm’s friends in government, Johnson would reveal in an October 2015 column for the Telegraph that he had been “inundated” with complaints from fellow Tories about his proposals. By January 2016, Johnson’s efforts to regulate Uber much more tightly would ultimately fail.

“Crosby is like us: he doesn’t lose”

Messina, the former Obama aide who warned of Johnson’s hostility, advised the company to hire the mayor’s former general Lyndon Crosby. “Lynton Crosby ran both Boris campaigns and is now Cameron’s campaign manager… His company lobbies and LOVES Uber. He can make up with Boris quietly. I say throw him in the water for us. He’s controversial, but he’s like us: he doesn’t lose,” Messina said in an email chain titled “Trouble in London,” sent to an Uber executive in February 2014. Lynton Crosby (left) and Boris Johnson in 2012. Photo: Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock Crosby met with Uber and his company CT Group to provide advice and polls, but leaked documents suggest Uber wasn’t sure it could trust someone so close to the mayor. Asked about his work for the Tories and Uber, Messina’s spokesman said he provided “global political counsel” and his work for Uber “was to help them understand the political landscape in some of the European countries where the company was seeking to develop its activities”. CT Group said: “Uber did not hire CT Partners. To be clear, CT is fully compliant with the requirements under the Pressure Act regarding customer disclosure.” No deal was ever made. But with concern growing for London’s mayor, Uber began asking for political help.

Dinner in Silicon Valley

London taxi drivers brought the capital to a standstill in the summer of 2014 in protest against lax regulation of Uber, accusing it of operating outside the law. At the time, Whetstone, then head of public affairs at Google, who was one of Uber’s major investors, sent Kalanick a memo on how to win over the British political establishment. Whetstone – Cameron’s friend and the wife of his former general Steve Hilton – had invited Kalanick to a private dinner in Silicon Valley, apparently at the suggestion of Osborne, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was billed as the star guest. Rachel Whetstone. Photo: PA Images A U.S. Uber aide told Kalanick in an August 2014 email: “We’ll get you in front of Osborne when you’re in London, but that’s a much more private matter, with no employees or staff.” Was this an official meeting? The guidelines are vague, but not stated by the Treasury. According to the documents, Whetstone believed Uber’s relationship with Osborne would be fruitful. He wrote to Kalanick in September 2014: “As you know George, this is most of the problem solved on the government side.” Regarding Johnson, he made some suggestions: “George will probably know better who has his ear, but he’s pretty uncontrollable…Eddie Lister runs his office (good kid). Boris will care a lot about the Evening Standard, so it’s worth seeing the editor there.’ Within the year, Kalanick had poached Whetstone for Uber. He would become head of communications and policy and help take Uber’s lobbying to the next level.

“Who is Matt Hancock?”

Osborne agreed to see Kalanick again in January 2015 in Downing Street. An Uber executive account described the chancellor as “very accommodating to Uber,” asking: “How can I get more?” They claimed he was “open to help with any obstacles we may encounter”, while stressing that it was best to discuss the London arrangement with Johnson. Uber considered Matt Hancock, then business secretary, who was close to Osborne, as another ally. An Uber UK PR executive described him as “a good friend of ours” in an email. Lottie Dexter, Hancock’s assistant who later became Uber’s head of public relations, reportedly told one of the company’s executives in April 2015: “Matt Hancock loves Uber and wants to meet soon.” He did not comment when contacted by the Guardian. One of Uber’s lobbying firms, Westbourne, was also linked to Hancock. The company’s list of lobbying targets from 2014 notes: “Westbourne spoke to Matt Hancock about Uber over dinner.” This was not announced, but his spokesman said the dinner was political and therefore could not be announced. Westbourne belonged to James Bethell, a hereditary Tory peer who later became Health Secretary under Hancock. Asked about his work for Uber, Lord Bethell said: “I hope we never turn our backs on innovative companies seeking to make their case to government and the media.” Despite Hancock being seen as a friend, Uber appeared touchy about which cabinet ministers Kalanick should see. An Uber executive in Europe asked in an email: “Who is Matt Hancock and why are we offering Travis to meet him?” In December 2014, Downing Street suggested to Uber that Hancock could meet Kalanick at No 10. The internal response from the Uber aide who organized Kalanick’s schedule came back: “Matt Hancock must be awful if he thinks that we would send TK to meet with him.” They were prime ministers, chancellors or nothing.

The Sexy Fish party

Uber’s problems worsened in 2015. First, TfL applied for a legal ruling on whether Uber’s fare-calculating app counted as a taximeter – which only black cabs are allowed to use. Then in June, Johnson hit out at “the brazen behavior of these giant American Internet companies and the way they think they can come in and disrupt the market.” Within weeks, TfL announced a consultation on limiting the numbers of mini drivers and asking customers to wait five minutes between booking and boarding the vehicle. Uber responded by going into hyper-lobbying. Whetstone and David Plouffe, another former Obama adviser who worked for Uber, came to London in the winter to target people associated with City Hall and Westminster, including Zach Goldsmith, the Tory candidate he hopes to replace Johnson. David Plouffe, who led Barack Obama’s 2008 US election campaign. Photo: Wenn Rights Ltd/Alamy Plouffe managed – finally – to see a member of Johnson’s team: Isabel Dedring, the deputy…