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Dale Vince, the green energy tycoon and one of the Labour party’s most generous donors, has confirmed his interest in buying The Observer from Guardian Media Group, offering bosses at the newspaper a potential alternative if a deal agreed with James Harding’s Tortoise falls through.
“We’ve already got too many rightwing media barons (often tax exiles) controlling what people read and hear and ultimately believe,” Vince, who has an estimated fortune of more than £100mn, said in a statement on Friday
He added: “Should there be a problem concluding [the Tortoise] deal I would like to enter negotiations and would be interested in the idea of holding the title in a trust.”
Vince, who founded renewable energy supplier Ecotricity and has given more than £5mn to the Labour party, did not reveal any further details of how much he would offer or invest.
GMG said it had “not received any bids containing any substantive detail from any party other than Tortoise Media”.
Dale’s decision to reveal his interest comes ahead of a crucial few weeks in the planned sale of The Observer to Tortoise, the lossmaking media start-up founded by Harding, a former Times editor and BBC News boss.
Harding has assembled funding from a range of investors, including Gary Lubner, a South African donor to Labour, to fund a £25mn, five-year investment plan. The Guardian will also retain a minority stake.
The Scott Trust, the £1.3bn fund that owns the Guardian and The Observer, had been expected to meet on Monday but people close to the situation said this has been postponed on Friday as members continued to negotiate and scrutinise the deal.
Guardian staff are due to walk out on the first of two strikes on Wednesday. Guardian editor Kath Viner has held a series of frosty meetings with staff this week, according to those with knowledge of the talks, where she has been grilled on the details of the Tortoise offer.
Observer staff are opposed to Tortoise’s proposed takeover of the 232-year-old Sunday title given concerns over their jobs under the new ownership and the future of the title.
However, Guardian bosses have made it clear that there would need to be a strategic audit of the Sunday newspaper if it is not sold.
A spokesman for Tortoise said “We’re making very good progress. We are putting serious money into journalism jobs — a dozen new staff roles and a near doubling of the editorial budget. We are committed to print for the long term and giving The Observer a digital life of its own, renewing it for today’s readers and the generation to come.”
