The proposed £500 million deal for the Daily Mail group to buy the company behind the Daily Telegraph newspaper has jangled nerves in UK Labour government circles, as it would cement another powerful right-wing print media bloc in addition to Rupert Murdoch’s News UK.
Yet the government in Westminster is also wary of the potential risks of blocking a deal after two years of financial uncertainty for the Telegraph Media Group (TMG), ever since it was first put up for sale after banks seized it from the Barclay brothers.
“The Telegraph has been in limbo for a long time,” said Lisa Nandy, the Labour government’s culture secretary whose formal approval is required, told the House of Commons this week.
“My particular concerns are that the protracted uncertainty has been detrimental to the stability of The Telegraph and its staff and to the investment appeal of the sector as a whole.”
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Since it was announced on November 22nd, some senior Labour figures have urged Nandy to block the deal by the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), owned by Jonathan Harmsworth, the hereditary peer also known as Lord Rothermere, to buy TMG.
Tom Baldwin, a Labour insider and biographer of prime minister Keir Starmer who remains close to Downing Street, said it would be “bad for democracy and bad for Britain” if Rothermere was allowed to control the two most powerful right-wing papers outside of Murdoch’s empire. Baldwin didn’t try to hide his political bias on the matter.
“Neither the Mail nor the Telegraph covers this government with even a modicum of fairness ... I hope Lisa Nandy – very fairly – decides to block this deal,” he said.
[ Daily Mail owner strikes £500m deal to buy TelegraphOpens in new window ]
The Liberal Democrats culture spokesperson Anna Sabine also warned that allowing the deal would create a “deeply concerning precedent”.
Nandy, however, signalled she may be amenable to it in principle as she announced that she was giving DMGT until the middle of December to make submissions on its plans for TMG. However, she is still expected to refer the deal to regulators to assess its impact on media plurality and on competition in the newspaper market.
“My intention is to build a constructive path toward a timely sale, without further delay, that is in the public interest,” she said.
The proposed deal has certainly been better received by staff at the Telegraph than two previous failed bids involving AC Milan owner, RedBird Capital, including one attempt to buy it with backing from Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nayhan.
The Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister paper have long been seen as the house papers of the Tory party, but increasingly in recent years they have shifted further to the right, sometimes surpassing even the Daily Mail in their radical populist slants.
The papers first entered limbo in late 2023 when Lloyds bank instigated the appointment of a receiver to the Bermuda-registered company that owned them, and also the Spectator magazine, on foot of £600 million in debts owned by the Barclays.
RedBird, controlled by colourful US hedge fund manager Gerry Cardinale, led the consortium that first agreed a deal to buy the titles. However, the consortium was 75 per cent backed by IMI, a UAE sovereign wealth fund linked to Mansour.
Staff at the Telegraph titles and Spectator were vehemently opposed to being taken over by a group linked to a Middle Eastern state with no freedom of the press. A vigorous lobbying campaign against the deal also began in the House of Lords.
In March 2024, the Tory government changed British law to limit foreign state-linked entities to owning just 5 per cent of any British newspapers.
The RedBird IMI deal was effectively dead, although the group had already acquired the option to buy. Now it would have to sell.
Rothermere, meanwhile, had been trying to buy the Telegraph for years, including one rebuffed attempt in 2004. Other potential bidders also circled after the end of RedBird IMI’s attempt, including US investor Todd Boehly, co-owner of Chelsea football club.
In September 2024, it was announced that the Spectator was being bought for £100 million by British hedge fund manager Paul Marshall, owner of UnHerd magazine and co-owner of GB News. He had previously tried and failed to buy all of TMG.
In the meantime, the future of the Telegraph titles remained up in the air.
In the summer of 2025, it was announced that RedBird would still buy TMG, but with less foreign backing. The Labour government then eased the ownership rule to allow state-linked foreign investors own up to 15 per cent, instead of the earlier 5 per cent.
Telegraph staff, however, remain opposed to a deal involving Cardinale. In early November, he announced he was walking away, leaving space for Rothermere to pounce with a deal by DMGT announced on November 22nd.
Rothermere already has an interest of sorts in Telegraph: his daughter, Eleanor Harmsworth, is a business journalist on the daily title.
Analysts at Standard & Poor’s last week (S&P) appeared to question where DMGT would get the £500 million it needs to raise to fund a deal. S&P put its bonds on a ratings review.
DMGT may have to sell off some of its other titles, including the iPaper or the Metro, to fund a deal. This might also help it navigate any competition concerns from regulators consulted by Nandy.
It is believed that Rothermere may expand the Telegraph titles to the US, where Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is seen as vulnerable to fresh competition in the right-wing press market, especially from a more radical-right populist position.
The question also remains about whether Rothermere’s expanded empire, should he get the go-ahead from Nandy, would stick with the Tories or formally switch to backing Reform UK and Nigel Farage.
[ Daily Mail seeks final say in tortuous Telegraph saleOpens in new window ]
