Member

As we have heard, we are being asked to agree something that permits multiple foreign state investors to acquire up to 15% of a UK newspaper without, as it stands, cumulative limits—a defect in these regulations that will not be addressed until the autumn. That is not a safeguard but a revolving door through which foreign interest may reach into the heart of our democratic discourse. And for what? It is to facilitate one single deal. The timing is no coincidence. We are being asked to rewrite press freedom protections not for principle but for expediency. The noble Baroness, Lady Twycross, said when she kindly invited me to meet her last Thursday that she cannot comment on who the sources of the funding are or on whether RedBird’s bid is fully funded and ready to go. So much for the transparency to which we are entitled before coming to a conclusion on these issues.