
Labour pledges to close foreign states loophole to ease Telegraph sale
The House of Lords has been preparing to derail proposals by Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, to allow the United Arab Emirates to own a passive stake in The Telegraph of up to 15pc.
She intends to ease an outright ban on foreign state shareholdings and end two years of damaging limbo.
However, the Government was facing a rare Lords defeat after it emerged that it had failed to account for the risk that multiple foreign powers could take stakes of up to 15pc each in a single title. It raised the prospect that states could secretly team up to gain sway over Britain's free press.
Responding to these concerns in the Commons on Wednesday, Stephanie Peacock, the media minister, pledged to introduce further legislation to close the loophole.
She pledged to publish draft legislation to guard against the risk by July 16, which would allow peers to review them before deciding whether to allow 15pc foreign state ownership. The vote to close the multiple stakes loophole would be likely to come after the summer recess.
Ms Peacock said: 'Our policy intention has always been to prevent any foreign state influence over the affairs and policies of UK newspapers and news periodicals.
'Although a remote risk, we acknowledge that in some circumstances different state-owned investors from different states could, in theory, each acquire up to 15pc of UK newspaper enterprises.
'The Government intends to lay, in draft, a second statutory instrument in the autumn to amend the foreign state investment exceptions to put the issue beyond doubt.
'We have chosen not to withdraw the regulation before us today due to the pressing need to have the main foreign state investment exceptions in place as soon as possible. This is important in order to give UK newspapers, and potential investors, greater certainty about the overall regime.'
Planned takeover
By pressing ahead to set the limit on foreign state ownership at 15pc, ministers hope to avoid further delays to a planned takeover of The Telegraph led by RedBird Capital, a US private equity firm.
It had been the junior partner in the attempted takeover last year by RedBird IMI, a vehicle mostly funded by the UAE vice-president Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. That bid was blocked following an outcry over press freedom.
Baroness Stowell, a Conservative peer who played a critical role in changing the law to prevent the UAE takeover, said the Government pledge to close the multiple stakes loophole could satisfy concerns.
She said: 'This is a step in the right direction. Nothing is certain yet, but it will mean that we can consider and vote on a 15pc limit having had sight of draft legislation to close the loophole.
'We all want to see certainty for The Telegraph, its readers and staff. However it remains unacceptable to create a risk that multiple foreign states could own 15pc each of any newspaper. If the Government delivers on what it has promised there could be a way forward.
'The outcome has to be both press freedom and financial stability.'
Gerry Cardinale, the founder of RedBird, has been putting the finishing touches to his planned takeover of The Telegraph and awaiting legal certainty before notifying regulators. He has pledged significant investment in journalism.
As well as IMI, the UAE's media investment vehicle, the ownership consortium is expected to include as minorities Lord Rothermere, the owner of The Daily Mail, and the billionaire businessman Sir Leonard Blavatnik.
The Conservative government last year proposed a 5pc cap on foreign state ownership. However, Ms Nandy has opted to treble the limit after lobbying from Rupert Murdoch and Lord Rothermere. They argued that a lower cap would have a chilling effect on investment in news publishing at a time of business upheaval.
Ministers have been seeking to repair relations with the UAE, which were badly damaged by the decision to block its attempted takeover of The Telegraph.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
11 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Viktor Gyokeres finally gets his wish as Arsenal-bound striker boards private jet to London after going on strike at Sporting to seal £64m move
Viktor Gyokeres has boarded a flight to London after Arsenal reportedly reached total agreement for the transfer of the Sweden star. The Gunners had been in prolonged negotiations with Sporting Lisbon for the forward's transfer, and are now believed to have agreed a deal, with personal terms not an issue. Gyokeres' agency, HC Media, shared footage of Gyokeres boarding what appeared to be a private jet to make his way to the English capital to finalise the move. More to follow.


The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
I look forward to meeting Swinney, says Trump as he leaves US for Scotland
US President Donald Trump has said he is looking forward to meeting Scottish First Minister John Swinney. The pair are expected to meet during the president's four-day trip to Scotland, which is expected to begin on Friday evening. Mr Trump will visit both of the golf clubs he owns in the country – Turnberry in South Ayrshire and Menie, near Aberdeen, in the coming days. Before boarding the presidential plane Air Force One to fly to Scotland, he told journalists: 'The Scottish leader is a good man, so I look forward to meeting him.' He also said he has a 'lot of love' for Scotland. Speaking to the PA news agency ahead of the visit on Friday, Mr Swinney said the meeting will be 'an opportunity to 'essentially speak out for Scotland' on international issues such as Gaza, as well as trade and the increase of business from the United States in Scotland. 'There are clearly also significant international issues upon which the people of Scotland have a view and want to have that view expressed by their First Minister,' he said. 'That relates to the awfulness of the situation in Gaza and the unbearable human suffering that is going on in Gaza. 'I want to make sure that those concerns and those views are expressed to the president of the United States. 'We have that opportunity, and I intend to take that opportunity to make sure that Scotland's voice is heard.' Mr Swinney also urged all of those set to protest against the president's visit to do so 'peacefully and to do so within the law'.


Reuters
14 minutes ago
- Reuters
Wall Street, dollar firms ahead of a big week for market risk
NEW YORK, July 25 (Reuters) - Wall Street and the dollar firmed on Friday as investors girded themselves for the week ahead, which includes a Federal Reserve policy meeting, crucial corporate results and U.S. President Donald Trump's August 1 deadline for negotiating trade deals. "Some deals will be done and talks will continue, and Trump may push out the deadline further," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "Trump's process is to shock and then be reasonable in terms of tariffs." All three indexes were modestly green in early trading, and were on course for weekly gains. Gold lost some shine, pressured by the dollar as healthy risk appetites lured investors away from the safe-haven metal. With Trump's negotiating deadline just a week away, the U.S. and its trading partners are scrambling to reach trade agreements, with European negotiators heartened by the deal with Japan announced on Tuesday. Intel's shares INTC.O, opens new tab dropped 8.8% after the chipmaker forecast steeper-than-expected quarterly losses and said it had halted or scrapped new factory projects in the U.S. and Europe. More than a third of the companies in the S&P 500 have posted results, 80% of which have beaten estimates, according to LSEG data. Analysts now expect year-on-year second-quarter earnings growth of 7.7%, compared with the 5.8% estimate as of July 1. Four members of the Magnificent 7 group of Artificial Intelligence-related megacap stocks - Amazon (AMZN.O), opens new tab, Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, Meta (META.O), opens new tab and Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab are on next week's earnings docket, and market participants will scrutinize the companies' conference calls for signs that AI expenditures are beginning to pay off and whether tariff-related uncertainties continue to weigh on forward guidance. U.S. economic data released on Friday showed an unexpected decline in new orders for core capital goods, as companies hold back on big ticket purchases amid the fog of ongoing trade talks. The Fed is expected to convene next week for its two-day monetary policy meeting, which is expected to culminate in a decision to let its federal funds target rate stand in the 4.25% to 4.50% range. The meeting comes at a moment in which Fed Chair Jerome Powell is facing criticism from Trump for not cutting rates. "I don't expect Powell to change what he does, nor should he," Ghriskey added. "The idea of lower interest rates should scare us because Fed has had this huge job of bringing down inflation, and to ease rates at this point is clearly going to be inflationary." The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), opens new tab rose 113.54 points, or 0.25%, to 44,806.30, the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab rose 16.19 points, or 0.26%, to 6,379.67 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), opens new tab rose 44.40 points, or 0.21%, to 21,102.36. European shares gave back some of the previous session's gains as market participants parsed mixed corporate earnings and awaited developments in the U.S.-EU trade negotiations. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe (.MIWD00000PUS), opens new tab fell 1.01 points, or 0.11%, to 940.34. The pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX), opens new tab index fell 0.29%, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index (.FTEU3), opens new tab fell 5.34 points, or 0.24%. Emerging market stocks (.MSCIEF), opens new tab fell 10.36 points, or 0.82%, to 1,256.93. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab closed lower by 0.95%, to 661.07, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab fell 370.11 points, or 0.88%, to 41,456.23. U.S. Treasury yields drifted higher in a subdued trading as investors braced for a data-heavy week, updates on U.S. trade talks, and a Federal Reserve policy meeting. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 0.2 basis points to 4.41%, from 4.408% late on Thursday. The 30-year bond yield rose 0.5 basis points to 4.9543% from 4.949% late on Thursday. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 0.6 basis points to 3.919%, from 3.925% late on Thursday. The dollar gained strength but remained on course for its biggest drop in a month as investors focused on tariff negotiations and central bank meetings on the calendar for next week. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, rose 0.28% to 97.72, with the euro down 0.2% at $1.173. Against the Japanese yen , the dollar strengthened 0.4% to 147.57. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 3.08% to $115,133.22. Ethereum declined 2.63% to $3,641.43. U.S. crude fell 0.56% to $65.63 a barrel and Brent fell to $68.91 per barrel, down 0.39% on the day. Gold prices dropped in opposition to the firming dollar, amid growing optimism surrounding U.S.-EU trade talks. Spot gold fell 0.93% to $3,336.52 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.85% to $3,342.50 an ounce.