The Daily Telegraph has been taking advantage of any disgruntled Times buyers by increasing its print run and tempting new readers with a glossy booklet detailing its contents plus money-off vouchers.

Times editor Robert Thomson is undismayed. “Anyone who compares The Telegraph to the The Times realises instantaneously that, qualitatively, The Times is a far better, more serious, newspaper,” he asserted.

“They don’t have the commitment to foreign news, policy or business news that we have. It’s a far inferior product. Times readers are discerning people and they can tell the difference.”