Yorkshire Conservative MP and former minister David Davis has warned against having the Mail and the Telegraph owned by the same man.
Writing for The Guardian, the Haltemprice and Howden MP said that while he liked Mail owner Lord Rothermere, adding that he and Lady Rothermere were “probably the nicest people in the upper echelons of today’s media, even they should not be allowed the huge power that would arise from … a conglomerate (of the Mail and Telegraph media groups).”
The Mail group’s interest in the Telegraph puts the ruthless competition of the UK press in danger, he wrote, adding: “I have no desire to attack the Mail itself. Instead, I am stating a simple truth about our media as a whole: it relies on a precarious balance of influence and competition, and we must make sure that balance remains.”
Mr Davis concluded by saying competition and diversity are vital for the press to fulfil its dual purposes of informing and scrutinising while a skewed media may also be a threat to democracy.
Lloyds Banking Group put the Telegraph group on the market last month.
The sale process is expected to take about six months.