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Top MP calls for Newcastle deal to be blocked

The influential chair of the House of Commons international trade committee has written to the international trade minister Liz Truss asking for the Saudi-backed takeover of Newcastle United to be blocked until claims of TV piracy in Saudi Arabia have been investigated: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53104800

Whether the Government could or should intervene is a moot point.   The Government's initial position was that it would not intervene.  International trade secretary Liz Truss is something of a lightweight and the Foreign Office is targeting her department for a takeover.

However, it is perhaps significant that foreign secretary Dominic Raab made some rather opaque remarks about the matter earlier this week before he was engulfed in controversy about his remarks over taking the knee.  Some Whitehall wags have harshly nicknamed him 'Dim Dom'.
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