MPs add to pressure on ministers to vet Barclay family’s Telegraph offer

MPs have written to the deputy prime minister arguing that the proposed deal for the Telegraph poses a ‘very real potential national security threat’. Photograph: James Boardman/Alamy

A group of MPs including the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith have asked ministers to use national security law to investigate the Barclay family’s proposed deal to give control of the Telegraph to a consortium backed by the United Arab Emirates.

The group of 18 MPs, which also includes Alicia Kearns, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, have written to the deputy prime minister, Oliver Dowden, arguing that the proposed deal poses a “very real potential national security threat”.