Labour declares war on Murdoch

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

As revealed by the Observer earlier this evening, Labour will attempt to use an opposition day debate on Wednesday to try and halt the News International takeover of BSkyB – and the leadership claim to be “confident” of getting cross-party support. The motion to be tabled will recommend that the takeover is halted until the criminal investigation is over – kicking the decision well into the long grass.

As the days go on and Labour acts ever more decisively against Murdoch’s media empire, it increasingly looks like the party is declaring war on the media mogul – and that’s certainly how this will be viewed by News International.

A source close to Ed Miliband told LabourList this evening that “we are incredulous that David Cameron thinks he can press on with this takeover or have an NHS style delay.” They also sought so stress their view that Cameron shows “no sign of understanding the bredth of this crisis or the depth of public anger.”

We’ll be covering the debate on Wednesday, and will bring you more news on this story as we have it.