Politicians and campaigners have called on Prime Minister Theresa May and UK regulator Ofcom to investigate Rupert Murdoch’s multi-billion pound bid to buy Sky – arguing Murdoch should be subject to a “fit and proper person test”.
Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox already owns a 39% share of Sky; however, on Friday (9 December) the corporation put in an offer of £11.2 billion to take full ownership of Britain’s biggest pay-TV broadcaster.
If the takeover goes ahead, Murdoch will take control of more than 22 million households across Britain, Ireland, Austria, Germany and Italy.
Responding to the news, Evan Harris, joint executive director of campaign group Hacked Off, said: “This bid ought to be checked by Ofcom, not only on competition grounds but on whether Rupert and James Murdoch continue to pass the “fit and proper person” test.
“Given recent revelations around email deletions that have emerged in court papers, and the conviction of the Murdoch “favourite” Mazher Mahmood, it is clear that that question can only be answered by the Leveson Phase 2 Inquiry which was established to get to the truth of precisely these matters.
“It is surely more than a coincidence that the Prime Minister’s secret meeting in New York with Rupert Murdoch was followed swiftly by her attempt to cancel the Leveson Phase 2 Inquiry into the News Corp hacking cover-up, and then this takeover bid.”
Meanwhile, a number of politicians have urged Theresa May to block the bid – raising concerns over the level of power it would give Murdoch over the UK’s media.
Speaking to the Guardian, former shadow culture secretary and Labour MP Chris Bryant, said: “Have we in Britain learned nothing about handing over the largest broadcaster by value and the largest share of newspapers to a single individual? The damage that does in the end to our political system is immense.
“It’s a phenomenal concentration of social and political power and if we let it go through without so much of a by your leave, we will rue the day. Again.”
Similarly, ex-BBC Trust chair, Sir Michael Lyons, said May should do anything in her power to rein in Murdoch’s growing influence on the news.
“Is she [Theresa May] really interested in a different type of future for this country?,” Lyons told the Observer.
“If so, she should do anything in her power to resist the further growth in the Murdochs’ grip on news and media. I recognise options are limited, but that doesn’t mean we should stay silent or ignore the fitness test.”
The former Labour leader Ed Miliband echoed Bryant and Lyons’ concerns, tweeting to his 536,000 followers that Government must refer the bid to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)/Ofcom.
