One of the architects of the UK’s new press regulator is to step back from the system, it will be announced today.

Lord Black of Brentwood, who has been one of the central figures in the construction of the new Independent Press Standards Organisation, is expected to tell the Scottish Newspaper Society conference he will play no further role in the new regulatory bodies.

Speaking at the conference at the Radisson Blu hotel in Glasgow, Lord Black is due to reveal he intends to concentrate on fighting the threats to press freedom he believes are coming both from within government and from the European Union.

He is expected to say: “The threats to our freedoms, from both a UK Government perspective but also from the EU, are now so severe, and the political environment so deeply hostile, that I need to concentrate on tackling them, along with other colleagues throughout the industry.”

As chair of the Press Board of Finance and a former director of the Press Complaints Commission he has spent 18 years working in Press regulation.

He is currently executive director of the Telegraph Media Group.

The event is the first SNS conference. First Minister Alex Salmond will deliver the closing address in which he is expected to voice his support for a free Press.

The new press regulatory bodies are due to be established later this year.