An influential group of authors including Stephen Fry, William Boyd and Salman Rushdie have urged party leaders to find a solution to the stalemate over libel reform.

The Defamation Bill's reforms of libel law are under threat because the Government will not let the legislation pass unless amendments at implementing the Leveson Report's recommendations on press regulation are removed.

The controversial changes to the Bill were tabled by Labour peer and film producer Lord Puttnam and would see the creation of an arbitration system recognised by a statutory body along the lines suggested by the report on press standards.