The Spectator more than doubled its pre-tax profits in 2020 as a 40% boost to subscriber numbers balanced out challenges to other parts of the business from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pre-tax profits at The Spectator (1828) Ltd, a subsidiary of the Barclays’ Press Holdings parent company, which also owns the Telegraph group, grew from £666,000 in 2019 to £1.6m.

The company grew subscriptions to both its weekly print edition and paywalled website.