Lobbying firm co-founded by Cameron and Johnson strategist paid journalists for apparently independent stories

A four-month Guardian investigation found that CT Group, the £40m-a-year lobbying firm co-founded by Lynton Crosby — strategist to David Cameron and Boris Johnson — paid journalists to place favourable stories that appeared independent in British national newspapers. Lobbyists offered an undercover reporter hundreds of pounds to pitch pieces for a property client seeking to shape coverage of the Building Safety Regulator, created after Grenfell. CT Group called the events "deliberately mischaracterised."