Labour turns up the heat on Hunt as Harman demands inquiry into News Corp contacts

LABOUR demanded publication of e-mails and text messages between Jeremy Hunt and his special adviser, Adam Smith, as pressure mounted on the Culture Secretary over his handling of News Corporation’s takeover bid for BSkyB.

Shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman said it was not “credible” that Mr Hunt was unaware of the nature of Mr Smith’s contacts with News Corp lobbyist Frederic Michel, exposed in e-mails published by the Leveson Inquiry.

But Downing Street said David Cameron would not ask his independent adviser, Sir Alex Allan, to launch an inquiry into whether Mr Hunt breached the ministerial code of conduct, as Ms Harman has demanded.

Rupert Murdoch denied he regarded Mr Hunt as an ally in his bid to gain control of the 61 per cent of BSkyB shares that his company did not own.

But he told the inquiry he expected Mr Hunt to be a “fairer” judge of the bid than Business Secretary Vince Cable, who was stripped of the role after being secretly recorded saying he had “declared war” on the News Corp boss.

“Did I assume that Mr Hunt was on our side? No,” Mr Murdoch said. “I assumed that any responsible minister would be responsible and deal with it in a completely unbiased way. I thought that Dr Cable was an exception.”

Mr Murdoch denied that Mr Hunt had given the BSkyB bid an easy ride, telling the inquiry: “We were made to make very big concessions, for reasons which I can’t understand.”

Labour also raised questions about Mr Hunt’s suggestion that Jonathan Stephens, the permanent secretary at his Department for Culture, Media and Sport, authorised Mr Smith to act as “point man” with News Corp.

Mr Stephens refused to answer questions on the affair before the Commons public accounts committee.