Stephen Byers is today claiming he has been given the all clear by a watchdog's report into Richard Desmond's takeover of Express newspapers.

A report from the Office of Fair Trading shows that the minister was following advice from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) when he backed Desmond's bid for the newspaper group.

Advice from the Department of Culture Media and Sport and the Home Office also cleared the controversial soft-porn publisher for the takeover.

Opposition parties have said they will study the OFT report in detail before they let the embattled minister off the hook over the Desmond affair.

They say that the report left open the possibility of Byers blocking the takeover on "non-competition" grounds.