The UK government has issued a legal order stopping a UAE-backed consortium from meddling with the Telegraph, including making any changes to top management and editorial executives, until investigations into its proposed takeover are complete.
Lucy Frazer, the culture secretary, issued the pre-emptive action order after RedBird IMI’s last-minute move to create a new UK holding company to house the Telegraph and the Spectator if its complex deal with the Barclay family to take control goes through.
It is the latest skirmish in the battle for control of the Telegraph in a pivotal year for UK politics, with a general election due to be held in the autumn.
Today I have made an order under the Enterprise Act to prevent pre-emptive action by the parties to the potential acquisition of the Telegraph Media Group while the current merger investigation takes place.https://t.co/5UNnb87tAn
— Lucy Frazer (@lucyfrazermp) January 30, 2024
Last week, Frazer criticised RedBird IMI, which derives most of its funding from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the UAE and owner of Manchester City Football Club, which resulted in the government having to launch a second public interest investigation into the deal with the Barclay family.
The new order is legally stronger than a similar “hold separate” instruction that Frazer issued in November that was meant to halt any changes being made at the Telegraph when she issued the first public intervention notice investigating the deal.
The new order contains a “general prohibition” on RedBird IMI taking any action that might prejudice the investigations, with Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority due to deliver their reports by 11 March.
It also has new provisions to ensure no more significant changes are made to the organisational or management structure at the Telegraph and the Spectator, including the titles’ board composition.
In addition, the definition of what constitutes “key staff” has been broadened to encompass an obligation not to remove or transfer key editorial staff in executive and management positions and encourage them to remain with the papers.
The order was made public just hours after Julia Lopez, a minister in the culture department, was taken to task over the UAE-backed deal in the House of Commons.
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MPs called for further investigation of the deal, including the behind-the-scenes details of the debt-to-loan provided to the Barclay family to make the takeover possible.
They also called for the deal to be subjected to scrutiny under the National Security and Investment Act, which allows the government to investigate and block deals relating to nationally important British assets and from which newspapers are at present excluded.