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The government has been urged to take control of the sale of the Telegraph through an auction run by a body such as the UK competition regulator or the Cabinet Office.

Peers called on the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, to wrest the sale process from RedBird IMI, which is majority funded by the United Arab Emirates, in questions put to Labour minister Fiona Twycross in the House of Lords on Wednesday.

RedBird IMI has been forced to restart the sale process after its junior partner in the joint venture, Gerry Cardinale’s US-based RedBird Capital Partners, pulled out of a deal to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph on Friday.

Christopher Fox, the Liberal Democrats spokesperson for business, said the Telegraph needed an independent “white knight” buyer and argued that those involved in previous attempts to buy the titles should not be allowed to lead the process. He added that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had mishandled the situation and suggested the Cabinet Office or an external adviser with experience of complex media transactions should take control instead.

The Conservative peer, Michael Forsyth, suggested that the government should turn to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to pursue a “proper auction and have normal order restored”.

Lady Twycross said the government was “acutely aware” that the protracted sale has left the Telegraph and its staff “in limbo for too long”, but said that the culture department would continue to control the process.

She said: “The secretary of state has adhered to the letter of the law and diligently carried out her quasi-judicial responsibilities. There is no basis to the suggestion that the decision should be made elsewhere. Securing a swift outcome in the public interest is a priority for her.”

Nandy could refer Redbird IMI’s bid to the CMA to investigate whether it breaches laws on foreign state ownership, using new powers under the Foreign State Influence (FSI) regime.

If the CMA were to deem the bid unlawful, Nandy could order an independent sale of the titles at a market-led price, potentially run by the regulator and supervised by the independent directors who have overseen the Telegraph during the protracted process.

Another option could be to coordinate the process through the Cabinet Office.

However, IMI, which is controlled by Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, has said that while it purchased an “economic interest” in the Telegraph it has never sought to influence or control the titles.

The newspaper group has been in limbo for two and a half years after Lloyds Bank put it up for sale, having seized control from its former owners, the Barclay family, over unpaid debts.

RedBird IMI, which took control of the titles in late 2023, was forced to put them back on the market after new legislation banned foreign states from owning UK newspapers. It has been unable to find a buyer at the £500m price it is seeking.

Most media analysts believe that the titles are worth about £350m.

Any move to force a sale, especially one resulting in a significant loss for RedBird IMI, which would anger the UAE, would be politically unattractive for the government.

Becket McGrath, a partner at Euclid Law, said: “The mechanism [to force a sale] seems to act as a sword of Damocles here. Government can force a sale by initiating a process but the current owners are looking to sell anyway. So it would just trigger a lot of bureaucracy and forces a bigger loss on them. It is not tempting for the government.”

RedBird Capital’s aborted bid, which could have been referred to Ofcom and the CMA on public interest grounds, would also have included small stakes from the owner of the Daily Mail and billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik.

A new sales process could revive interest from GB News investor Sir Paul Marshall, who acquired the Spectator in September 2024 for £100m, and Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT).

However, a bid from DMGT, which already handles the Telegraph’s printing and advertising sales, would trigger regulatory scrutiny over competition concerns.

Lord Saatchi and Lynn Forester de Rothschild also tabled a bid last August for £350m, plus a promise of further payments dependent on performance, which was also rejected by RedBird IMI.

A rare example of the first functioning calculating machine in history looks likely to stay in France after Christie’s withdrew it from auction pending a definitive ruling from a Paris court on whether or not it can be exported.

La Pascaline, developed by the French mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal in 1642, when he was just 19, and billed as “the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction”, had been expected to fetch more than €2m (£1.8m).

But the auction house withdrew the ebony-inlaid instrument from sale on Wednesday after the Paris administrative court, responding to an urgent appeal by scientists and researchers, provisionally suspended its authorisation for export late on Tuesday.

“Given its historical and scientific value, La Pascaline is likely to be classified as a ‘national treasure’ … which prevents the issuance of an export certificate,” the court said, adding its provisional decision “prohibits it from leaving the country”.

Christie’s said it was suspending the sale, part of an auction of the library of the late collector Léon Parcé, given the court’s decision, pending its final ruling – which could take several months – and “in accordance with the instructions of our client”.

The instrument, in private hands since 1942, is one of only eight authentic Pascalines in existence. Christie’s described the machines as “nothing less than the first attempt in history to substitute the work of a machine for that of the human mind”.

Pascal developed the instruments, the first attempt to “mechanise mental calculation”, to simplify the work of his father, who was in charge of a court tasked with restoring order to tax revenue collections in northern France, Christie’s said.

The philosopher devised several models, each using different units for a specific purpose, such as calculating decimals, commercial transactions or taxes. This one, for surveyors, calculates in units of measurement including feet, inches and fathoms.

The group of eminent scientists and researchers, including the 2021 Nobel physics laureate Giorgio Parisi, asked the administrative court last week to block La Pascaline’s potential export, arguing it should be classified a “national treasure” and remain in France.

La Pascaline was “the origin of modern computing” and had made France “the cradle of the computing adventure: a revolution that transformed our understanding of the world”, they said in an impassioned op-ed published by Le Monde.

It was “one of the key jewels in France’s intellectual and technological heritage”, they said, accusing the state of committing an “astounding blunder” in granting Christie’s export authorisation rather than giving French institutions time to mount a bid.

“What a sad admission of disinterest in our scientific heritage,” the scientists wrote. “What a misunderstanding of Pascal, engineer, mathematician, philosopher, writer, a personality like no other, whose 400th birth anniversary we celebrated in 2023.”

The fact that five Pascalines were already in French public collections – the other two are in Germany – did not diminish this one, they said, because all have their own characteristics and this one was little known to the scientific community.

“It is vital that it enter a public collection so that it can be studied,” they added, describing La Pascaline as “a shining symbol of a unique alliance of history, science and technology” that reflected “a philosophy of learning that honours France”.

The culture ministry said an export certificate had been issued last May following standard procedures, with two experts – one from the National Centre of Arts and Crafts and the other from the Louvre museum – approving the decision.