Vince Cable has said he is “pleased” that News Corporation dropped its bid for BSkyB - but insisted he was not treating it as a personal victory.

The Business Secretary was stripped of his role deciding the proposed takeover in December last year after he told two undercover reporters he had “declared war” on Rupert Murdoch.

He kept his cabinet job but suffered huge embarrassment following the Daily Telegraph sting.

He told the Richmond and Twickenham Times today that he believed more people shared his views about Murdoch’s media empire following the phone hacking revelations.

He said: “I’m not treating this whole thing in a personalised way. What I am pleased about was that I did manage to refer the bid in autumn last year - if that hadn’t happened it would now be a done deal.

“People have known my views for a long time and I suspect they are now shared more widely.”

He said the Liberal Democrats were one of the major parties that has never had any special relationship with News International, Murdoch's British press arm and owners of the News of the World.

He said: “I think it’s fair to say we haven’t been compromised in our dealings with News International. I think people recognise that and that’s good for us.

“The past is in the past now, we got to a bad place and what we now have to do is get on with reforming and sorting out the relationship with police and the press and looking at the whole issue of concentration of ownership and competition and plurality.”