Leveson inquiry: Calls for Jeremy Hunt to quit over Murdoch emails

THE Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt faced calls for his resignation last night after evidence appeared to show that he backed News Corporation during its attempted take-over of BSkyB.

The demand followed the release of a 163-page dossier detailing contacts between the Culture Secretary’s office and senior News Corp executive Frederic Michel.

In a series of emails to James Murdoch and other executives, Mr Michel - then the company’s director of public affairs in Europe - reported on Mr Hunt’s thoughts about the progress of the controversial takeover plans, which were dropped in July last year amid the furore over phone-hacking at the News Corp-owned News of the World.

• Read the dossier in full (PDF)

In one message Mr Michel detailed what the Culture Secretary would say to Parliament the next day, noting that it was “absolutely illegal” for him to obtain the information.

Another email, dating from January last year, reported Mr Hunt’s belief that it would be “game over” for opponents of the BSkyB takeover once plans to spin off Sky News into a separately listed company were publicly announced.

“He said we would get there at the end, and he shared our objectives,” Mr Michel noted.

Although many of the emails refer directly to Mr Michel having spoken to “JH”, he told the inquiry that in fact this was shorthand for contacts with the Culture Secretary’s office - usually his special adviser Adam Smith.

Raising a point of order in the Commons, deputy Labour leader and shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman said Mr Hunt’s conduct had fallen “woefully short” of the standard expected.

She called on him to apologise to the Commons and resign from David Cameron’s Cabinet.

“In view of the evidence that has been adduced before the Leveson Inquiry today it appears that the Secretary of State has fallen woefully short of the standards expected by his office and by the public interest,” Ms Harman told MPs.

“I believe, on a point of order, that the right thing for the Secretary of State to do would be to come to this House to offer an apology and to tender his resignation.”

But Downing Street insisted that the Culture Secretary still had the Prime Minister’s full confidence.

And an aide to Mr Hunt said that he “feels completely confident that he followed the proper process” and did not intend to voluntarily make a statement to MPs.

Instead he would respond to all of the points raised at today’s hearing when he gives evidence himself to the Leveson Inquiry “in a few weeks’ time”.

“He is going to give evidence where he will respond to everything that was raised today in a few weeks’ time,” the aide said.

“He thinks it is appropriate that he goes through the proper channels - that is giving evidence to Leveson.”

Asked if that meant he would reject Labour’s demands that he appear in the Commons, she said: “If he is called then of course he will.”

Mr Hunt later said: “I’m going to be making a statement later this afternoon.

“I need to read through all the evidence that has been submitted and I’ll make a statement.”

Asked if he was a cheerleader for the Murdochs, he replied: “I was not, no, but I’m not going to say any more now I’m afraid.”

Ed Miliband said Mr Hunt must resign and warned David Cameron he had “questions to answer”.

The Labour leader said: “I myself have said all politicians, including Labour, became too close to the Murdochs but this is in a completely different league.

“We have Jeremy Hunt engaging in detailed discussions with a party, News Corporation, that is bidding to take over BSkyB and he is supposed to be the impartial judge.

“There are also questions for David Cameron to answer because now we know that just after Vince Cable was stripped of responsibility for the BSkyB takeover and it was passed to Jeremy Hunt, he, David Cameron, was having discussions with James Murdoch and others.

“We need to know what happened in those discussions. So there are questions for Jeremy Hunt to answer, there are also questions for David Cameron, George Osborne and the whole Government to answer.”

News Corp had sought to buy the 61% share in BSkyB it did not already own, but dropped the bid on July 13 last year after public outcry over the revelation that the News of the World hacked murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone.

On January 24 last year Mr Michel sent an email to Mr Murdoch outlining a statement Mr Hunt would make the following day announcing his intention to refer the takeover bid to the Competition Commission.

He wrote: “Managed to get some infos on the plans for tomorrow (although absolutely illegal...>!)”

Robert Jay QC, counsel to the Leveson Inquiry, suggested that News Corp was having “covert interactions” with Mr Hunt.

He said to Mr Murdoch: “It was a sneak preview of the Secretary of State’s press statement and the statement to Parliament, wasn’t it, and you were given the gist of it here.”

But the media mogul said he treated Mr Michel’s “absolutely illegal” comment as a joke, adding that he expected Mr Hunt’s advisers were also talking to other interested parties about the proposed BSkyB takeover.

Mr Michel stressed that his emails were all based on information provided by Mr Hunt’s special adviser Adam Smith or the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s director of media Jon Zeff, and did not derive from direct contact with the Culture Secretary.

On January 25 last year Mr Hunt said he was minded to refer the BSkyB takeover to the Competition Commission but delayed doing so while he considered proposed concessions from News Corp.

Later that day Mr Michel emailed Mr Murdoch to say: “JH (Jeremy Hunt) believes we are in a good place tonight.”

And on February 2 the News Corp public affairs director wrote: “I have managed to get JH quickly before he went in to see Swan Lake.”

Mr Murdoch suggested this was actually a reference to a conversation with the Culture Secretary’s special adviser, noting: “I think Mr Smith and Mr Hunt went to Swan Lake together.”

On another occasion Mr Michel reported on friction within the Cabinet over Business Secretary Vince Cable’s stance on the BSkyB takeover.

Referring to information provided by Rupert Harrison, special adviser to Chancellor George Osborne, he wrote on November 9 2010: “Confirmed tensions in the Coalition around Vince Cable and his current policy positions.

“Vince made a political decision, probably without even reading the legal advice.”

Mr Jay asked: “Do you think it’s appropriate, Mr Murdoch, that here you are getting confidential information as to what is going on at a high level in Government?”

Mr Murdoch replied: “What I’m concerned with here was the substance of what was being communicated, not necessarily the channel by which it was being communicated.

“Mr Michel’s job was to engage with special advisers and at a political level with Westminster, to put it broadly. That’s what a public affairs executive does.”

In December 2010 Mr Cable was stripped of his responsibilities for regulating the media after he was caught on tape by undercover reporters claiming to have “declared war” on Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire.

The inquiry heard that Mr Michel wrote to Mr Murdoch on December 14 2010 describing the Culture Secretary’s views about a recent letter about the proposed merger published by regulator Ofcom.

He said: “He (Mr Hunt) is pretty amazed by its findings, methodology and clear bias. He very much shares our views on it.”

Just minutes later then-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks emailed both Mr Murdoch and Mr Michel: “Same from GO (George Osborne), total bafflement at response.”

Mr Jay suggested that Mr Hunt would have approved News Corp’s takeover of BSkyB if it had not been for a newspaper article revealing the hacking of 13-year-old Milly’s phone.

He said: “If it weren’t for the public relations disaster of the Guardian piece on July 5 2011, you would have got the remaining shares, wouldn’t you?”

Mr Murdoch replied: “I can’t speculate. He never ended up making that decision.”

News Corp was also given inside information about Downing Street’s early plans for the official probes into the phone-hacking scandal that eventually became the Leveson Inquiry.

Mr Michel wrote to Murdoch on July 7 2011: “(The BSkyB bid) was not discussed at No 10 meeting that Hunt had with the PM - was discussing the two inquiries (police one led by a judge and ‘media practices’ one not with a judge and led by DCMS).”

Mr Jay asked Mr Murdoch about a comment from an interview with Broadcast magazine posted on Mr Hunt’s website that said: “Like all good Conservatives, Hunt is a cheerleader for Rupert Murdoch’s contribution to the health of British television.”

But Mr Murdoch denied the Culture Secretary was a “huge ally”, saying: “I wouldn’t describe it that way. I don’t think so.”

The media boss said he would never expect News Corp’s support for politicians to help the firm’s interests.

“That is absolutely not the case and the question of support of an individual newspaper for politicians one way or another is not something that I would ever link to a commercial transaction like this,” he said.

“Nor would I expect that political support one way or another ever to translate into a minister behaving in an appropriate way, ever. I simply would not do business that way.”