“Giant tech firms” are hiring lawyers and lobbyists to “run rings” around politicians and regulators, Shadow Culture Secretary Tom Watson has claimed.

He comments come during a speech he made at the Byline Festival in East Sussex on Saturday as he opened an hour-long debate entitled Monopolies of Truth alongside panellists including investigative journalist Nick Davies and Ivor Gaber, a political journalism professor at the University of Sussex.

There was a need for better regulation of online “giants” like Google and Facebook, and an “innovation test” should be brought in as part of competition rules, said Watson.