Jeremy Hunt takes the stand at Leveson
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt takes the stand at the Leveson inquiry to answer allegations that include bias and misleading parliament over his handling of News Corp’s failed BSkyB bid.
Another day of drama is expected at the Leveson inquiry into media ethics with the much-anticipated appearance of the culture secretary, following the forced resignation of his former special adviser Adam Smith.
Mr Hunt will be questioned about his decision to oversee approval of Rupert Murdoch’s bid to take over shares he did not already own in the satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
So far, messages and texts shown to the inquiry indicate Mr Hunt and his special adviser were in constant contact with Fred Michel, the head of public affairs for News Corporation in Europe.
Justice Leveson rejected Mr Hunt’s request for his appearance to be brought forward so he could answer questions about whether News Corporation had received inside information about the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, in charge of approving the bid.
Mr Hunt has insisted he oversaw the process “with scrupulous fairness throughout”.
What did Mr Hunt know?
Prime Minister David Cameron has given the culture secretary his backing throughout, but warned that if anything arises from the inquiry that suggests the ministerial code was breached, he will call in his independent ethics adviser Sir Alex Allan or take other action
Robert Jay QC, lead counsel for the inquiry, will want to establish how much Mr Hunt knew about, and authorised, his special adviser’s close relationship with Mr Michel.
Given that Mr Hunt previously revealed his support for the takeover in a message to Mr Cameron, the inquiry is expected to investigate whether Mr Hunt was an appropriate person to make an independent judgement.
‘War on Murdoch’
Last week, the inquiry published a memo he sent to Mr Cameron in November 2010 in which he appeared to be making the case for News Corp’s bid to go ahead.
Weeks later, Business Secretary Vince Cable was stripped of the quasi-judicial responsibility after he told two undercover reporters he was seeking to block News Corp’s attempt to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB which it did not already own, by referring the bid to regulators.
The job was then handed to Mr Hunt, who is the only witness scheduled on Thursday.
Government are like ‘sheep’
On Wednesday, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke told the inquiry that people are put off politics because they do not want to open their private lives to scrutiny.
The justice secretary said politicians were influenced by a “noisier and noisier” press, claiming newspapers could “drive weak governments like sheep”.
Mr Clarke said: “There certainly are cases… where policy decisions are taken primarily because people, the politicians and ministers responsible, are fearful of the media reaction.”
He described the relationship between journalists and politicians as “love-hate” and said the press was now “noisier” than ever, and claimed papers wielded greater power than parliament.