London | Two of Britain’s leading conservative media outlets could end up under the control of autocratic Abu Dhabi, stymieing an auction process that had whetted the appetite of a hungry pack of moguls that reportedly included Rupert Murdoch.

Lloyds Banking Group has paused the sale of The Telegraph, a traditionalist Tory daily broadsheet, and The Spectator, a conversational and highly influential centre-right magazine on politics and culture, after receiving a Gulf-backed rescue bid from the titles’ previous owners.