LIVE BLOG: Phone-hacking controversy
The latest updates from Channel 4 News as the phone-hacking scandal engulfing News International continues as fresh allegations come to light. Join the debate with #c4news.
17.25: According to reports Prince Charles and his wife Camilla are among at least 10 members of the royal household warned by Scotland Yard they may have been targeted for hacking.
17.10: Shares in BSkyB closed nearly five per cent lower on Monday after News Corp defied City expectations that it would dump its proposed bid for the satellite broadcaster.
Rupert Murdoch’s company withdrew its offer to hive off Sky News as a separate company and said it was now ready to engage with the Competition Commission instead. The company could now wait six to eight months to see whether the deal will go ahead.
17.00: The culture secretary told MPs the Competition Commission “will be able to give further full and exhaustive consideration of [the BSkyB] merger, taking into account all relevant recent developments.”
Earlier Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg stepped up pressure on Rupert Murdoch urging him to do the “decent and sensible thing” by reconsidering his takeover bid for the satellite broadcaster.
Labour had threatened to table a Commons motion on Wednesday calling for the Government to take that course of action, and senior Liberal Democrats had indicated support.
16.45: In a boisterous debate in the Commons, Labour leader Ed Miliband accused an absent David Cameron of leaving Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to “carry the can” in an “insult to the House and to the British public”.
16.35: Latest on the Gordon Brown allegations from Political Editor Gary Gibbon:
“Brown believes that his bank accounts were illegally accessed by investigators working for newspapers while he was Chancellor, and that his son’s medical records may also have been illegally accessed by The Sun.
“The police have told Mr Brown that his mobile number and Sarah’s too were in the possession of Glen Mulcaire, the convicted hacker, so may well have been hacked into.”
For more from Gary Gibbon visit the Politics blog.
16.30: As allegations emerge that Gordon Brown’s bank details were “blagged” by someone acting for the Sunday Times, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has vowed to fight on in its battle for BSkyB amid further falls for the satellite broadcaster’s shares.
The company has withdrawn its offer to hive off Sky News as a separate company as part of its approach for BSkyB and said it was now ready to engage with the Competition Commission instead.
Shares fell six per cent after Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced he is seeking fresh advice from Ofcom over whether to refer the bid to the Commission.
16.20: Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt today tells the House of Commons he is referring News Corporation’s bid to buy the remainder of shares in BSkyB to the Competition Commission with immediate effect.