Labour comes out against a UAE-backed takeover of The Telegraph

Labour has come out against a UAE-backed takeover of The Telegraph.

Thangam Debbonaire, the Shadow Culture Secretary, told The Spectator that the view of the party “is that foreign governments should not own national newspapers. This is a bid by a foreign power, funded by the deputy prime minister of the UAE, and as such this bid should not pass.”

It comes as the Government is understood to be considering an overhaul of Britain’s media ownership laws to restrict foreign state influence.

RedBird IMI, a fund 75 per cent financed by the UAE, is trying to gain control of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and the Spectator magazine.

The attempted takeover is stuck in limbo as the Culture Department waits for the media regulator Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to complete investigations.

Ofcom is scheduled to deliver its report to Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, on Monday. She would then be able to block the deal following further investigation by the CMA of its potential threat to press freedom.

Ms Debbonaire told the Spectator: “My view – and the view of the Labour party – is that foreign governments should not own national newspapers. This is a bid by a foreign power, funded by the deputy prime minister of the UAE, and as such this bid should not pass. Labour is unequivocal and unambiguous on this point: ownership by a foreign power is incompatible with press freedom, which is essential in a democracy.”

Meanwhile Tom Tugendhat, the security minister who attends Cabinet, said the Government “shouldn’t be shy about standing up for ourselves” on foreign state ownership bids.

Mr Tugendhat said: “You’ll understand that I can’t comment on the RedBird deal specifically and I just wouldn’t want to prejudge it. It wouldn’t be right.

“However, look, more broadly, I’ve expressed concerns in the past about foreign bids of strategically important British assets. Whether that be Newport Wafer Fab or Arm or Deep Mind I’ve already made my views clear.

“Before selling these kinds of assets we should ask whether it’s in the long-term interests of the United Kingdom. And if the answer’s no, we shouldn’t be shy about standing up for ourselves and saying so.”

In a significant intervention by a minister as the Government weighs up its options, Mr Tugendhat added later in his LBC interview: “This is a really important aspect of our national security and we’ve always made it very clear that when decisions need to be taken, we’ll take them and we’ll make the right decision for the United Kingdom.”

The Government has issued a write-round to ministers, proposing either giving Parliament a veto over any proposed foreign state ownership of UK newspapers, or determining a threshold for the Government to intervene in foreign state ownership bids based on the level or type of investment.

It comes after Baroness Stowell, the Tory chairman of the Communications and Digital Committee, tabled an amendment to the Digital Markets Bill which would give Parliament a veto on foreign states taking over UK news organisations.

It is due to be debated and voted on this Wednesday.

More than 100 MPs, led by Robert Jenrick, the former Tory immigration minister, have announced their support for the amendment from Lady Stowell, who was Tory leader of the Lords when Lord Cameron was prime minister.

However, Mr Sunak’s decision on what action the Government will take is expected to be made before the debate on Wednesday. Any government amendment would likely be made to the Enterprise Act.

It is understood that once the Government has decided upon its intervention, ministers would encourage Lady Stowell to withdraw her amendment.

On Monday morning, Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary suggested that Labour would work with the Government on measures to protect newspapers and media organisations from “undue influence”.

Asked about the proposed takeover of The Telegraph and Lady Stowell’s amendment, Ms Phillipson said that “right across the party lines” politicians want to protect the freedom of the press.

Ms Phillipson told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “Of course questions of ownership are important. I think what all of us would want to see right across party lines is a free and fair press, and where we don’t have undue influence and we would want to look carefully at any proposals about that.”

The party had indicated that it would give its peers a free vote on Lady Stowell’s amendment, rather than instructing them to back it.

Lady Stowell had written to the 170 Labour peers seeking their support.

The scale of concern about the proposed UAE-backed takeover of The Telegraph emerged in a House of Commons debate in January, when MPs from across the political spectrum criticised the deal.

Alicia Kearns, the Tory MP for Rutland and Melton, who heads up the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said in that debate: “We are dealing with something that will make us vulnerable not for five or 10 years, but for the rest of our lives, and we cannot afford for our media to be undermined.”

Thangam Debbonaire, the Labour shadow culture secretary, said: “We on these benches recognise the legitimate public interest concerns raised over the proposed acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group, including about the accurate presentation of news, free expression of opinion in newspapers and the competition issues.”

John Nicolson, the SNP MP, said “allowing the UAE to take over The Telegraph would be unhealthy in principle for our democracy”.

Jamie Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP, said: “The message should be passed back to the Secretary of State and to the Government that we will not wear this.”