Nadine Dorries is back to criticise the Telegraph and its owners the Barclay Brothers. In a Commons adjournment debate about the pension schemes of both the Telegraph and another business owned by the Barclay brothers, the Littlewoods store chain, the Conservative MP called the twins both “hypocritical” and “bullies”.
Though Dorries said the tax set-up of the Littlewoods pension pot was her primary concern, she took the opportunity to take a pop at the Barclay Brothers’ reputation for using lawyers against those delivering unfavourable coverage of their affairs.
“Some might call it hypocritical for owners of a British newspaper that regularly dishes out dirt to sue competitor journalists in a foreign jurisdiction. I call that hypocritical,” she told MPs.
“When I wrote a critical judgment of their actions on my blog, they harassed my blog site host with midnight emails from lawyers in New York, France and London, forcing my host to close down my blog for a few hours. The Barclay twins are deeply hypocritical.”
She also took the opportunity to revisit the resignation of chief Telegraph political correspondent Peter Oborne last month over claims the newspaper went easy on major advertiser HSBC.
Dorries hasn’t had the cosiest relationship with the Daily Telegraph. She reportedly banned the paper’s Mandrake diary column from the launch of her first novel The Four Streets last April after what her PR said was a “slew of nasty coverage”.
While Monkey is sure the honourable member was mostly concerned with the safety of Littlewoods employee pensions and the tax takings at HMRC, it seems unlikely any follow-up to The Four Streets will be getting especially favourable reviews in the Telegraph.