As it happened: Alex Salmond at the Leveson Inquiry

ALEX Salmond appeared before the Leveson Inquiry into media standards today, where he was questioned over his relationship with media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

• The First Minister is appearing in London at the Leveson Inquiry

• Mr Salmond says he has no evidence that his phone was hacked - but says his bank account was accessed by The Observer

• Salmond defends his involvement with News Corp

Politics editor Eddie Barnes provided live updates...

4.45pm: Salmond now setting out his thoughts on regulation of the press. First of all, there’s the criminal law which must be observed, he says. The fact it hasn’t in both England and Scotland has made him “very angry” he says. Apart from that, he says he’s a “minimalist”, saying there must be a free press, even if it is biased.

He also makes the points that redress in the Courts must be open to all, not just those who can afford it, that politicians should abide by transparency and their Ministerial codes, and that the UK should perhaps look at the Irish system of press oversight, which provides a statutory but voluntary framework where the press is independently regulated.

4.16pm: Salmond now discussing his chats with Rupert Murdoch after last year’s election win. They met in June last year when they talked mostly about Scottish independence - and didn’t discuss the BSkyB deal. “He had a lively interest in the subject (independence) Rupert Murdoch was coming anew to the subject and he found it intriguing..... I think he was coming increasingly interested and warm to the subject. He was sceptical but he wasn’t unfriendly to the idea of Scottish independence.”

4.10pm: They now discuss an email from Fred Michel to James Murdoch in which Mr Michel wrote that Mr Salmond had “wanted to see whether we could help smooth the way for the process” of the Sun changing support from Labour to SNP. Yes, that was me who made the call to Mr Michel, says Salmond.

He feared that there might be a “London veto” on an editorial decision in Glasgow. “All I wanted was a lack of influence,” from London, he says. It was more than that wasn’t it, asks Jay, suggesting Mr Salmond was also offering his support for the BSkyB bid in return for the Sun’s support.

Mr Salmond insists this isn’t the case. He adds that, in his experience, it is editors - not the Murdochs - who make the decisions on editorial policy. And Andy Harries, the Scottish Sun editor, wanted to back the SNP.

3.49pm: Salmond says the Sun in Scotland was thinking of a change in political tack prior to last election because its new editor, Andy Harries, wanted to change tack. “I think the new editor wanted to set a different direction. I’m not saying it was my silver tongue that changed it. It was certainly true that he wasn’t counter-manded by the Sun in London,” he says. He would have been prepared to lobby against the BSkyB takeover, he adds, if it had been bad for jobs in Scotland.

3.42pm: Salmond says he told James Murdoch he would be prepared to lobby UK Secretaries of State about the bid. But he says his conversations with Rupert and James Murdoch did not stray onto requesting backing for the SNP. “With Ruper Murdoch and James Murdoch as well, if you do that, what you’d say was, go to the editors. They are perfectly right to say that.”

So, presses Jay, you did attempt to raise their support with them then? “I don’t think I’ve ever done it explicitly,” says Salmond. “It would be more ‘I take it I’d have to go the editors’, much more like that. I don’t think I’ve ever explicitly asked him for support for the party.”

3.26pm: Here’s Salmond’s defence on his lobbying for the News Corp BSkyB takeover: “It should be understood BSkyB is a huge employer. We are talking about more than 6,000 full time jobs in addition to 2,000 outsourcing jobs. Some 36 per cent of BSkyB total global employment is in Scotland. They are in the top ten of private employers. So it is a matter of great importance.”

He says he wanted to meet James Murdoch to discuss the company’s future plans, given its importance in the country. Yes, he backed the BSkyB takeover. “I was in favour of what benefitted the Scottish economy. I have no responsibility for broadcasting and plurality. But I do have a responsibility for jobs and investment....that is my statutory responsibility.”

He says he wanted to talk to the appropriate Secretary of State who was dealing with the takeover to ensure that jobs and investment, as well as broadcasting concerns, were taken into account. “That was entirely legitimate.”

3.15pm: Finally, Salmond gets onto his relationship with Rupert Murdoch. He says he doesn’t demur with Murdoch’s description of their relationship; that they don’t know each other well, but have had friendly and warm conversations. “Often we were discussing Scotland and his Scottish ancestory and the fact that his grandfather was the Church of Scotland Minister in my old constituency.”

3.10pm: Salmond still expounding on the issue of free speech. “I do think people have the right to be offensive. There’s many things in the press that I find offensive on a daily basis,” he notes, but that doesn’t mean he has the right to stop them appearing.

He is asked about a claim he was anti-English in the Press and Journal, over which he complained. “I have been sensitive throughout my political career that I have an anti-English bone in my body. I don’t. Its not true and its damaging to suggest so.”

3.01pm: FM wrote to the editors of the Herald and the Scotsman urging them to moderate comments on their websites which were anti-semitic. It came after a meeting he had with the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities which raised concerns with him. “A newspaper has to have respondibility to moderate comments on its website,” he says. He says he has “sympathy” with those trying to moderate the net, saying things will always “slip through the net.”

2.54pm: Salmond is buttering up Robert Jay like a warm crumpet. He’s already raised his golfing hobby. Now, as Mr Jay raises the SNP Government’s lobbying for the BBC’s Gaelic channel, he praises the QC’s pronounciation of the language. The hug-em-close strategy is working so far.

Plus, Salmond is noting simply that, as a politician, of course he attempts to influence the press and media. That is what politicians do. This is also working. Not a glove laid on the First Minister yet.....but his involvement with News Corp’s takeover has yet to come up.

2.34pm: Support during an election campaign from a title is over-rated, says Salmond. The problem lies when all the press “hunts in a pack”. He says the fact no newspaper backs independence is a problem. “That is something I have got to try and change,” he says.

2.29pm: There is no evidence I was hacked, says Salmond.

But he then tells an extraordinary story, saying his bank account details were hacked into by the Observer newspaper in the run up to the 1999 Scottish elections. He was told this by a former Observer journalist. The paper even knew he had bought some toys for his nieces from a shop called Fun and Games, on Lintlithgow High Street. “This caused great anticipation and hope because they believed they thought fun and games was more than a conventional toy shop. It turned out to be just a toy shop.”

He adds: “It has tended to colour my view of things. Given that personal experience and the evidence by Operation Motorman and hacking, I believe that there is a substantial case that illegality was rife across many newspaper titles and very very little was done to uphold the criminal law.”

2.17pm: Leveson inquiry temporarily talking to itself for a minute or so, as the TV feed went down. Claims Kevin Pringle was seen outside inquiry running away with a fuse box.

Jay asks Salmond whether he wants a Scottish specific solution to the Inquiry. “It rather depends on the proposition that emerges from this Inquiry”, says Salmond. “If it comes up with a proposition which is eminently sensible then the Scottish Parliament would be foolish not to pay attention to it.”

Lord Leveson then mentions the “English Parliament”. Salmond is straight in. “I like the term English parliament, I approve of that.” His Lordship holds his head in his hands.

2.09pm: Salmond begins by stating that newspapers have the right, within the law, to say at they see it. “Newspapers have the right witin the law to pursue their own opinions or indeed prejudices. If it chooses in the famous phrase to give the public their daily hate, then they have the right to do it,” he says. And it is unrealistic to imagine there will be a separation between fact and opinion. It is a “price we have to pay for free speech”.

1.58pm: Will be interesting to see how Alex Salmond plays this today. He says he was prepared to intervene in News Corp’s BSkyB takeover because of the impact it would have on Scottish jobs - and not because he was trying to curry favour with News Corp titles.

Will Robert Jay QC seek to probe that claim? It’s not been his style so far. Perhaps Mr Jay will simply stick to the observations by the Murdochs. James said in April: “Salmond offered to be supportive … [the bid] was a good transaction for Scotland”. He added: “Politicians seek the favour of the press at all times.” Rupert added the day after that Salmond had never “explicity” asked him for support from News International newspapers. “But of course Mr Salmond is a politician,” he declared in his witness statement.

1.30pm: Alex Salmond is up next at Leveson. He has placed himself under a self-imposed silence over his relationship with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp chiefs over the last few months. It makes his appearance all the more eagerly awaited.

The story so far. In late 2010, with the News Corp bid to take over BSkyB now in the hands of Business Secretary Vince Cable, the company’s PR chief Fred Michel began to look at the influence Mr Salmond could bring to bear on the matter.

In November, Mr Michel emailed James Murdoch, headed “Scotland- confidential. Mission accomplished”. In it, he declared: “Alex Salmond is very keen to also put these issues across to Cable and have a call with you tomorrow. His team will also brief the Scottish press on the economic importance of News Corp for Scotland.”

In December, Mr Cable was relieved of the bid, after telling undercover reporters he wanted to “declare war” on Rupert Murdoch. In January, four months before the Scottish elections, James Murdoch invited Alex Salmond for lunch in London. Mr Salmond says the meeting was to discuss News Corp’s business interests in Scotland

A few weeks later, on February 11th, further contacts were made between Mr Michel and Mr Salmond’s office. He emailed James Murdoch: “I met with Alex Salmond’s adviser today. He will call Hunt whenever we neet him to.” The same e-mail records the SNP adviser proposing that Sky hold a debate between Mr Salmond and former Labour leader Iain Gray.

Another email from Mr Michel, dated 3rd March, records a phone call from Salmond to Michel, following up a “very good dinner” which Mr Salmond had with the editor of The Sun in Scotland.

It declares: “The Sun is now keen to back the SNP at the election. The Editor will make his pitch to the Editoral team tomorrow. Alex wanted to see whether we could help smooth the way for the process.”

Mr Michel goes on: “He also asked whether we could go for dinner at Bute House before the election campaign kicks off on the 22nd March. On the Sky bid, he will make himself available to support the debate if consultation is launched.”

Mr Salmond dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” any suggestion that he had phoned or written to Mr Hunt on the matter. He subsequently revealed that while no call had taken place, this was only because circumstances changed over the bid, which collapsed last summer in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

Giving evidence, James Murdoch rejected claims that Salmond’s help was in return for him getting political support from the Scottish edition of the Sun at the Holyrood election last year.

He said: “Salmond offered to be supportive … [the bid] was a good transaction for Scotland”. He added: “Politicians seek the favour of the press at all times.”

Rupert Murdoch subsequently told the Leveson Inquiry, that Mr Salmond had never “explicity” asked him for support from News International newspapers. “But of course Mr Salmond is a politician,” he declared in his witness statement.

On his active involvemet in the bid, Mr Salmond has said: “I thought Scottish interests should be taken into account at some point in the deliberations [of BSkyB] that had to be made by UK secretaries of state. Far better to do it on that basis than to do it on the politics of whether they liked or didn’t like Rupert Murdoch. I would have been delighted to articulate that position if the opportunity had presented itself. As it turned out the opportunity didn’t present itself through a combination of circumstances. Arguing for the Scottish interest is what this government does. Anyone who thinks we shouldn’t do that, they shouldn’t be in politics.”