British media join forces against Murdoch takeover of BSkyB.

Cameron finds himself in a dilemma. He came to power with the backing of Rupert Murdoch and now many right wing British newspapers have teamed up with papers on the left to call for the coalition to intervene and prevent Murdoch from acquiring a complete takeover of BSkyB, which currently trades as Sky.

The companies behind the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail – both supporters of the Conservatives – united with the owners of the Guardian and the Labour-backing Daily Mirror to petition Vince Cable, the business secretary, to consider blocking News Corporation's proposed £8bn full takeover of the satellite broadcaster BSkyB, which trades under the name Sky .

Fearful of the combined might of an integrated News Corp-Sky operation, which would include the Sun, the News of the World, the Times and book publisher HarperCollins, the complainants said the "proposed takeover could have serious and far-reaching consequences for media plurality".

The letter, signed by Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive of Telegraph Media Group, Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, owner of the Daily Mirror, and Andrew Miller, chief executive of Guardian Media Group, was sent to Cable today. The signatories argue against a combined Murdoch multimedia empire that would have a turnover of £7.5bn compared with the BBC's £4.8bn.

They are joined by Mark Thompson, director general of the BBC; Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT; and David Abraham, chief executive of Channel 4. Thompson was the first to publicly call for Cable to review the deal "given the scale of the potential ownership in UK media", in an interview last week with Charlie Rose on the PBS channel in the US.

The document is also backed by a memo prepared by the City law firm Slaughter & May, which sets out legal arguments for the minister to intervene.

The headache for Cameron is that he can ill afford to lose the support of the Daily Mail and the Telegraph, but Andy Coulson - his head of communications, and the former editor of the News of The World, still mired in the controversy over illegal phone tapping - remains very close to the Murdoch empire.

The Liberal Democrats in the Con-Dem coalition have no such loyalty to Murdoch and might be very willing to see the argument being put by a broad section of what used to be known as Fleet Street.

The law requires that Cable consider whether or not Murdoch's takeover would damage democratic debate. Sky, at this moment, is certainly nowhere near as partisan as it's sister station in the United States: Fox News. Sure, journalists such as Adam Boulton found it hard to hide their favouritism for the Tories during the recent election, but Sky remains, on the whole, nothing like it's American counterpart.

The question is, how long would that remain the case if Murdoch's empire was allowed to expand?

Cameron's instinct will be to keep Murdoch happy. But he is bed with the Liberal Democrats, and it is unlikely that they will share that sentiment. I doubt very much that Vince Cable and David Cameron will find themselves on the same side of this debate.

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Tags: Murdoch, Sky, Vince Cable, David Cameron, Tories, Liberal Democrats