• Telegraph deal: stake promised to UAE before legislation approved “puts the cart before the horse”
• With just weeks to go, 125,000 meters still need replaced
• UK Government admits it doesn’t know how much Welsh Rail electrification would cost

Telegraph deal: stake promised to UAE before legislation approved “puts the cart before the horse”

Responding to reports that the Telegraph has agreed a deal with a US private equity firm but that the UAE will retain a 15% stake, Chris Fox, Liberal Democrat Lords’ Spokesperson for Business and sponsor of the fatal motion to block the legislation allowing foreign state stakes in British papers, said:

Promising a stake in the Telegraph to the UAE before Nandy’s legislation has passed Parliament puts the cart before the horse.

We don’t believe in letting overseas states buy their way in to influencing the news we read. We’ll move to block the law as soon as it reaches the Lords – and can win the vote if the Conservatives do the right thing and stand with us.

The new permissions for foreign ownership of newspapers simply don’t exist yet, and there’s many lawmakers who don’t believe they should.

Of course we want to see our iconic British papers survive, but editorial independence must be shielded from foreign sway – not just in the current case, but for all future deals cut on UK newspaper ownership as the media landscape continues to change beyond recognition.

With just weeks to go, 125,000 meters still need replaced

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Shetland Beatrice Wishart has called for urgent action to prepare for the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) switch-off as she highlighted figures showing that with just weeks to go there are just under 125,000 meters still to be replaced but just 5,000 per fortnight are being replaced.

The Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS), used by energy suppliers for some electricity meters, particularly in island and rural areas, to control heating and hot water systems, is set to end on 30 June 2025. At this point affected households face having their heating and hot water stuck either off or on.

According to Ofgem figures, provided by Energy Action Scotland to Ms Wishart, as of 18th April, across Scotland there were 124,864 meters still needing to be exchanged including 22,579 in Glasgow and 17,175 in Edinburgh. This is a decrease from 129,814 on 4th April and 134,829 on 21st March. This suggests that if the current trend continues the backlog of meters will not be completed for around a year.

Ms Wishart’s Shetland constituency is especially badly affected with 4,204 meters still to be replaced out of around 10,600 households.

The Liberal Democrats have called on the UK Government to require energy suppliers to compensate any household that requested a replacement meter before the shutdown but never received one.

Commenting on the figures, Ms Wishart said:

The RTS switch-off has been depressing, frustrating and entirely avoidable. Frankly it is a national disgrace.

We have weeks until the deadline but the energy companies are still so far behind. No one should be left without basic hot water or heating.

In Shetland and across Scotland, it will take over a year for all remaining RTS meters to be exchanged.

We have been promised technological fixes in advance of the switch off, yet we are, at the fifty ninth minute of the eleventh hour, still finding that there has been limited development in technology or greater connectivity to the smart meter signal.

I urge local authorities and local resilience partnerships to ready themselves for any potential adverse outcomes of the RTS switch-off which may include thousands of homes without heating and hot water.

Another short extension of the deadline will not solve the issue and if the switch-off is in autumn or winter the problems it will cause would be exacerbated by cold weather.

Energy companies must increase their efforts to exchange all outstanding meters ahead of the deadline and be prepared to compensate anyone who has requested a new meter but loses out as a result of this bungled switch over.

UK Government admits it doesn’t know how much Welsh Rail electrification would cost

New information uncovered by the Welsh Liberal Democrats has revealed that neither the Wales Office nor the UK Government Department for Transport know how much electrifying the North and South Wales mainlines would cost – raising serious questions about the commitment and planning behind long-promised rail improvements in Wales.

The UK Government confirmed via a Freedom of Information response to Welsh Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick that it holds no data on the estimated costs of the electrification of the North Wales Mainline, while the most recent estimate it has for the South Wales Mainline is from 2017 prior to the project being cancelled.

The Conservative Government repeatedly announced support for rail electrification in Wales, especially as part of its “levelling up” agenda. However, no actual figures or cost assessments appear to have been commissioned or retained—suggesting these promises were never seriously pursued.

In 2017, the Conservatives scrapped plans to electrify the South Wales Main Line between Cardiff and Swansea. While electrification from London to Cardiff was completed, the remaining 40 miles to Swansea were abandoned. Then-Transport Secretary Chris Grayling claimed bi-mode trains would deliver the same benefits, a claim that has since faced widespread criticism.

Similarly, the North Wales Main Line electrification was repeatedly floated, with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing in 2021 that the line from Crewe to Holyhead would be upgraded. Yet no funding was ever allocated, no timeline confirmed, and no business case advanced. The line remains reliant on outdated diesel services.

The Liberal Democrats argue that without any up-to-date estimated costs held by the Wales Office or Department for Transport, neither project is realistically close to being delivered.

This is despite Labour’s Wales Secretary Jo Stevens describing fair rail funding as her “number one” priority ahead of the upcoming Spending Review, expected this autumn.

The revelation adds to growing frustration over how rail is funded in Wales. England-based projects like HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail have been classified as ‘England and Wales’ schemes, meaning Wales receives no consequential funding—while Scotland and Northern Ireland do.

Commenting on the findings, Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster Spokesperson David Chadwick MP said:

This admission is as staggering as it is revealing. For all the headlines, the Conservatives never even priced up rail electrification in Wales.

Worse still, there’s no sign that Labour is any more serious about delivering despite such statements from Jo Stevens. Without costings, these projects are clearly nowhere near shovel-ready.

Electrification is about more than trains. It’s about boosting our economy, connecting key ports and industries to make them competitive in global markets; cutting emissions, and connecting communities.

Failing to invest in Welsh rail is not just a missed opportunity—it’s a deliberate political choice to keep Wales at the back of the queue.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats will continue to fight for a fair deal on rail funding for Wales.