David Cameron forced to deny a ‘grand deal’ with Rupert Murdoch

DAVID Cameron has denied making any deals with the Murdoch family over their efforts to buy up BSkyB as the scandal threatened to engulf his government.

As Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s position began to look more tenuous over the weekend over help given by one of his special advisers to News Corporation, opponents claimed that the trail of evidence led to Number 10.

In an effort to draw a line under the issue, Mr Cameron appeared on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday morning to deny any deal with the Murdochs had taken place.

He admitted that he had conversations with James Murdoch about the takeover at a private party held by former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks’ house and hinted that he regretted doing so in retrospect.

However, he insisted there had been no “grand deal” with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire to wave through the takeover in return for support from News International newspapers.

“It would be absolutely wrong for there to be any sort of deal and there wasn’t,” he said. “There was no grand deal.”

However, his protestations of innocence failed to convince opponents who believe the net is closing on Mr Cameron.

Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: “I’m afraid the Prime Minister is trying to brush this away [Hunt]. He’s trying to push it into Leveson because he’s afraid of scrutiny and he knows the allegation of side deals with News International is about Jeremy Hunt and the Prime Minister himself. That is the charge.”

Mr Cameron also stood by Mr Hunt and said that he did not believe the Culture Secretary had broken ministerial code and should not be blamed for wrongdoing by his special adviser Adam Smith, who last week resigned over information he had passed on to News Corp.

Mr Cameron admitted discussing BSkyB with senior News Corp executive James Murdoch at a Christmas 2010 dinner at the Oxfordshire home of Mrs Brooks.

Asked whether he was embarrassed that he was even at the party, Mr Cameron said: “Clearly, after all that’s been written and said about it, yes of course one might do things differently.”

The Prime Minister said he did not recall the exact details of his conversation with Mr Murdoch but that it concerned the recent controversy over Business Secretary Vince Cable’s comments that he had “declared war” on News Corp.

“What I recall saying, although I can’t remember every detail of the conversation, is saying something like: clearly that was unacceptable, it was embarrassing for the government, and to be clear from now on this whole issue would be dealt with impartially, properly, in the correct way, but obviously I had nothing to do with it, I recused myself from it,” he said.

The Prime Minister offered qualified support for his under-fire Culture Secretary.

“As things stand, I don’t believe Jeremy Hunt broke the ministerial code,” Mr Cameron said, but added that he could yet order an independent investigation after the Culture Secretary has given evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.

He has been resisting demands to call in his independent adviser on ministerial interests, Sir Alex Allan, arguing that the issue should be left to Lord Justice Leveson.

“If evidence comes out through this exhaustive inquiry where you’re giving evidence under oath – if he did breach the ministerial code – than clearly that’s a different issue and I would act,” he said.

The Prime Minister said Mr Smith had been right to resign over his contacts with News Corp lobbyist Frederic Michel, which were “too close, too frequent”.

But he added: “I don’t think it would be right in every circumstance if a special adviser gets something wrong to automatically sack the minister.”

Labour accused Mr Hunt of having misled parliament when he told the Commons last year he was releasing “all the documents relating to all the meetings, all the consultation documents, all the submissions we received, all the exchanges between my department and News Corporation”.

Last week, e-mails between Rupert Murdoch’s company and Mr Hunt’s office came to light – exposing the Culture Secretary to damaging allegations that he supported News Corp’s bid when he was supposed to be impartial.

The Prime Minister admitted yesterday that he courted Mr Murdoch’s newspapers in opposition, but said it was “no great mystery” as he had tried to win over many media outlets.

“I did want the support of as many newspapers and television commentators for the Conservative Party [as possible] because I wanted to take the country in a different direction.

“When it comes to the Murdoch newspapers, I was trying to convince a set of newspapers with largely centre-right, conservative views anyway, that they would be better off with the Conservative Party running the country. There is no great mystery here – that is what I was trying to do. I did want the support of as many newspapers and television commentators for the Conservative Party [as possible] because I wanted to take the country in a different direction.”