Labour under pressure to appoint Tory ex-minister as next Ofcom chair

Liz Kendall urged by online safety figures to hand job to Jeremy Wright ahead of Labour grandee Margaret Hodge

Ministers are facing pressure to appoint a former Conservative cabinet minister as the new chair of the media regulator Ofcom, as he battles for the job against a Labour peer.

The job of running the regulator has become a key post in public life, as concern over online content has grown rapidly, alongside the rise of more politically partisan broadcasting. No successor has yet been named to replace Michael Grade, the former BBC chair who has just weeks left in the job.