Independent and Evening Standard content director Chris Blackhurst has claimed that “senior politicians” have urged newspaper editors to establish their own regulator outside of the auspices of a Royal Charter.

Blackhurst told BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show that politicians, whom he would not identify but described as “household names”, had called him and other editors to “go alone”.

The calls came, according to Blackhurst, despite the three main Westminster political parties already having agreed a Royal Charter on press regulation due to be considered this autumn.