Barclay family’s offer for Telegraph likely to be referred to Ofcom

Government ‘minded to’ issue intervention notice to call in regulator on public interest grounds

The culture secretary has said that she is likely to refer the Barclay family’s proposed £1.15bn deal to take back control of the Telegraph and Spectator magazine to Ofcom.

Lucy Frazer, who has 10 working days to make a final decision on referring the deal to the media regulator, said that she was “minded to” issue an intervention notice to call in the communications regulator to examine the deal on public interest grounds.