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Rupert Murdochs bid to snap up Sky would give him control of Sky News and pay-TV operations in the UK, Germany, Austria and Italy. Photograph: Al Bello/Getty Images

Rupert Murdochs bid to take over Sky must be blocked because it would give him too much control of news media in the UK and he is not a fit and proper owner, according to a submission to Ofcom from the former Labour leader Ed Miliband and the ex-business secretary Vince Cable.

Miliband and Cable, outspoken critics of Murdochs 11.7bn bid to take over Sky, have the support of the Labour peer and barrister Charles Falconer and of Tory father of the house Kenneth Clarke, who have put their name to the submissions.

The media regulator is assessing whether the takeover of Sky raises plurality issues and whether under 21st Century Foxs full ownership it currently controls 39% of the pay-TV company broadcasting standards would be maintained.

Ofcom, which has until 16 May to deliver its decision to the culture secretary, Karen Bradley, is also reviewing whether Fox is fit and proper to take control of Skys broadcasting licence.

Miliband, Falconer, Clarke and Cable who was forced to hand over responsibility for assessing Murdochs failed 2010 bid for Sky after telling undercover Daily Telegraph reporters that he was at war with the media mogul have filed two lengthy submissions fleshing out their arguments against the deal.

An accompanying letter said that while the submission on plurality concerns was comprehensive and detailed it runs to 61 pages the argument against allowing Murdoch more control of UK news media was succinctly summed up by Lord Justice Leveson in his 2012 report into the culture, practices and ethics of the press.

All the politicians who gave evidence before the inquiry said that Mr Murdoch exercised immense power and that this was almost palpable in their relations with him, said Leveson.

The letter said this evidence of the immense and outsized power of the Murdochs was central to Ofcoms public interest test, which states that the media regulator must prevent any one media owner, or voice, having too much influence over public opinion and the political agenda.

Foxs bid to snap up the 61% of Sky it does not already own would give Murdoch control of Sky News and pay-TV operations in the UK, Germany, Austria and Italy.

His ownership of UK news media also includes the Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun as well as radio group TalkSport, which he controls through a separate company, News Corp.

The letter asserted that this would give them more control over the viewing and reading habits in our country than any other provider, apart from the BBC.

The 33-page submission raised a catalogue of issues against Murdoch and Fox being fit and proper to take over Skys broadcasting licence.

We believe on the grounds of fitness and propriety, this bid should be blocked, the letter said. The fitness test goes to the question of character and conduct. The record is one of persistent disregard for the law and regulatory control.

During its investigation following Murdochs previous attempt to take over Sky in 2010, Ofcom found that Sky remained a fit and proper owner of a broadcast licence despite the phone-hacking scandal that embroiled the now-defunct News Corporation, then parent of Fox and Murdochs UK newspapers.

However, it published a scathing assessment of James Murdoch, then chief executive of his fathers UK newspaper group and chairman of Sky, finding that his conduct had repeatedly fallen short of the standards expected.

The political fallout ultimately resulted in Rupert Murdoch withdrawing his bid and James Murdoch standing down as chairman of Sky and quitting the UK newspaper business to run Fox, the film and TV operation, from the US.

We do not believe that Ofcom could be satisfied that Sky would remain a fit and proper licensee if this bid was successful, said the letter from Miliband, Cable and Falconer. Indeed, we contend that no reasonable Ofcom properly directing itself on the test it has to apply could come to this conclusion.

Following the failure of the previous bid, Rupert Murdoch spun off the publishing and newspaper assets into a separate company, News Corp, and film and TV into 21st Century Fox, with independent boards, in part a corporate governance measure to facilitate another tilt at Sky.

In a letter to Bradley during the 10-day period she has had to review whether to refer the bid to Ofcom, Fox argued that in the six years since the aborted bid, the media landscape had changed beyond recognition. Fox said media plurality was flourishing with the rise of digital rivals such as Google and Facebook and news distributors and new outlets such as Vice, Buzzfeed and Huffington Post, while newspaper sales declined.

Fox also argues that splitting the publishing and TV and film operations into two companies solves corporate governance, competition and plurality issues.

We are confident that a thorough review of our track record over 30 years will underscore our commitment to upholding high broadcast standards, and will demonstrate that the transaction will not result in there being insufficient plurality in the UK, said a spokeswoman for Fox.

Opponents of the bid have raised concerns that Murdoch, who also owns the rightwing Fox News, will use his influence to drive the news agenda, thereby risking the Foxification of Sky News.

Fox has also pledged to keep Fox News at arms length and continue to broadcast news under the Sky brand maintaining its excellent record of compliance with the Ofcom broadcasting code.

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Ofcom must block Murdoch's Sky takeover, Miliband and Cable say - The Guardian