Aidan and Howard Barclay have broken their silence in a bitter feud over the family’s business empire, accusing their uncle Sir Frederick Barclay of fabricating blockbuster offers for the family’s Ritz hotel and threatening to sue him for damaging the family’s reputation and business interests. Aidan, the chairman of the publisher of the Telegraph, and Howard run and control Ellerman, the UK holding company that includes the newspaper group, the online retailer Very – previously known as Shop Direct and before that Littlewoods – and the delivery firm Yodel. Sir Frederick, 85, and his daughter Amanda, 42, are in a bitter legal battle with his twin brother Sir David’s sons – Aidan, Howard and Alistair – and Aidan’s son Andrew after Frederick’s nephews were accused of secretly recording 1,000 conversations he held in the conservatory of the Ritz. Frederick has claimed the hotel, which was sold to a Qatari buyer in March for between £700m and £750m, was disposed of in a process that was effectively a fire sale, and that he had various interested buyers prepared to offer as much as £1.3bn. “We have, until now, resisted making public statements … however, due to the consistent, misleading and damaging briefing to the media against us and our family businesses by Sir Frederick, we feel it is necessary to set the record straight,” Aidan and Howard said in a statement released in the name of Ellerman. “Sir Frederick is 85 years old and has not been directly involved in the running of our family businesses for almost 30 years. He is not a director of any of the companies; nor does he have any direct or indirect ownership interest in those businesses. Despite this, he has for some time been conducting uninformed conversations with a range of third parties about sensitive commercial matters relating to the group.” The statement says Frederick’s public assertion that the Ritz was sold for “half the market price” is of most concern. He released CCTV footage earlier this week allegedly showing his nephew Alistair handling a bugging device in the Ritz where Frederick was known to smoke a cigar and hold business meetings. Ellerman says it is “simply untrue” that any bidder made an offer for anything close to £1.3bn. “Had there been such an offer, we would have been delighted to accept it,” the statement said. “At a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty, we cannot allow anything to undermine our attempts to do what is best for the future of our family businesses and the many thousands of employees. As such, we will actively pursue our options for recourse against Sir Frederick.” Frederick issued a statement that stood by his claims about the Ritz and said it was his nephews who had damaged the family reputation by spying. “I find this statement baffling,” he said. “My nephew Aidan persuaded me to find buyers for the Ritz hotel. This I did, getting not one but two substantial offers of more than £1bn. Aidan will also be aware there is correspondence which confirms this. We too would have liked to have resolved this in the family. “Sadly, the appalling tactic of spying on fellow family members have complicated matters considerably. Regrettably, this statement on behalf of my nephews is inaccurate, inept and ill-informed.” In response to an inquiry from the Guardian a person close to Ellerman said the claims of two competing offers of £1bn-plus for the Ritz hotel were false.