Prospective bidders led by the hedge fund billionaire and GB News shareholder Sir Paul Marshall have been agitating for the launch of a PIIN. The battle for control of The Daily Telegraph has rapidly turned into a complex commercial and political row which has raised tensions between the DCMS and the Foreign Office over Britain's receptiveness to foreign investment.

'And they have their own media assets to try to hurt us.' 'There's a reason that people are slinging mud and throwing darts - because they want to own these assets,' he told the newspaper. Last week, Mr Zucker, who Sky News revealed was spearheading the deal, told the Financial Times that competing bidders were 'slinging mud'.

The fund's offer to fund the loan redemption has circumvented an auction of the Telegraph titles which has drawn interest from a range of bidders. RedBird IMI, which is led by the former CNN president Jeff Zucker, intends to take control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph by converting a £600m chunk of its loan to the Barclays into equity. Lloyds wrote to government officials last Thursday to say it would support the retention of a trio of independent directors, led by the Openreach chairman Mike McTighe, while a public interest inquiry is carried out.

Instead, an agreement will be put in place to ensure the independent governance of the titles during the process, they added.

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