guardian.co.uk,
Patrick Wintour and Dan Sabbagh, Tuesday 24 April 2012
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| Jeremy Hunt has urged the Leveson inquiry to allow him to clear his name. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images |
Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, has begged the Leveson inquiry to give him a
chance to salvage his reputation after emails released by News Corp appeared to
show that Hunt and his office passed confidential and market-sensitive
information to the Murdoch empire to support its takeover of BSkyB.
Facing
calls from the Labour leader Ed Miliband to resign, Hunt urged Lord Justice
Leveson to change his hearings timetable and give him a chance to clear his
name.
As the
day-long questioning of James Murdoch ended, Hunt rushed to a meeting with
David Cameron and the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to explain the
emails and texts that appeared to show he ignored his commitment to MPs to act
in a quasi-judicial and impartial capacity over the £8bn bid, one that only
failed in the wake of the Milly Dowler phone-hacking furore.
In the most
dramatic day of hearings at Leveson yet, the inquiry was shown emails written
by James Murdoch's chief lobbyist, Frédéric Michel, written the day before Hunt
was due to make a market-sensitive statement to parliament, which appeared to
indicate that he was minded to approve the bid in negotiation with News Corp.
The statement came just a couple of days after the former News of the World
editor Andy Coulson was forced to resign as communications chief at No 10 amid
mounting hacking allegations.
Michel told
Murdoch at 3.21pm on Monday 24 January, with stock markets in London and New
York open, that he had "managed to get some infos [sic] on the plans for
tomorrow (although absolutely illegal!)" which set out the timetable of
Hunt's announcement due next morning and quoted from the planned announcement.
Hunt said that he wanted to negotiate with News Corp over potential
undertakings in lieu (UIL) of a referral to the Competition Commission. Murdoch
said on Tuesday that the reference to "illegal" material was a joke.
A day
earlier, Michel explained in an email to Murdoch what he understood to be the
culture secretary's true thinking behind his public remarks. "His view is
that once he announces publicly he has a strong UIL, it's almost game over for
the opposition … He very specifically said he was keen to get to the same
outcome and wanted JRM [James Murdoch] to understand he needs to build some
political cover on the process."
In another
email, Michel reported a request from the Hunt team that News Corp "try
and find as many legal errors as we can" in the Ofcom report on the public
interest implications of the bid. When Hunt cancels a meeting with James
Murdoch in November 2010 because he has received "very strong legal advice
not to meet us today as the current process is treated as a judicial one",
Michel reports to his boss that he can still talk to him on his mobile phone
"which is completely fine".
James
Murdoch confirmed on Tuesday that Hunt had called him following this exchange.
The emails
were handed over by News Corporation on the order of the Leveson inquiry in a
163-page disclosure that had the effect of deflecting attention from James
Murdoch's testimony, and even threatening to overshadow Rupert Murdoch's
evidence on Wednesday.
James
Murdoch told Leveson that Michel was simply "doing his job" in trying
to get the bid approved, and that in any event he took all communications with
politicians with a "grain of salt". Hunt was co-operative because
"he didn't want to take any heat alone" and that "I have never
met a politician who did".
The emails
appear to show how News Corp expected Hunt to push for the BSkyB deal to be
approved. After speaking to Hunt or a member of his team "before he went
in to see Swan Lake" in February 2011, Michel told his boss: "I told
him he had to stand for something ultimately … and show he had some
backbone." Cameron's spokeswoman robustly defended Hunt, saying he had
acted throughout on the basis of independent advice, in a process Hunt
repeatedly described as "quasi-judicial". But Robert Jay, the QC for
Leveson, suggested to Murdoch that the communications revealed amounted to the
judge in a case "telling you behind the scenes ... that you're going to
win".
In a
statement on Tuesday, Hunt pleaded for time, saying: "Now is not a time
for kneejerk reactions. We've heard one side of the story today but some of the
evidence reported meetings and conversations that simply didn't happen. Rather
than jump on a political bandwagon, we need to hear what Lord Justice Leveson
himself thinks after he's heard all the evidence.
"Let
me be clear: my number one priority was to give the public confidence in the
integrity of process. I asked for advice from independent regulators – which I
didn't have to do – and after careful consideration I followed that advice to
the letter. I would like to resolve this issue as soon as possible which is why
I have today written to Lord Justice Leveson asking if my appearance can be
brought forward. I am very confident that when I present my evidence the public
will see that I conducted this process with absolute objectivity and scrupulous
fairness."
His
statement implies he believes he has Cameron's support to cling to office for
months including through the Olympics since Justice Leveson is unlikely to
report in the short term.
Hunt was
resting his defence partly on the admission by Michel that some of his internal
emails referring to contacts with JH were in fact "no more than shorthand
for what I was told by someone within Jeremy Hunt's office, almost invariably
his special adviser Adam Smith".
But Michel
states: "His advisers were there to assist and advise Jeremy Hunt and it
was my understanding that when they told me something, it was always on behalf
of the minister and after having conferred with him."
Hunt's
aides were refusing to blame Smith, or accuse him of acting as a rogue
operator, suggesting Hunt may have been aware of the content of these contacts.
But Hunt's
aides insisted the culture secretary will give evidence under oath and reveal
his phone records.
Miliband
said: "Hunt should have been standing up for the interests of the British
people. In fact it now turns out he was standing up for the interests of the
Murdochs. He himself said that his duty was to be transparent impartial and
fair in the BSkyB takeover. But now we know that he was providing advice
guidance and privileged access to News Corporation. He was acting as a back
channel for the Murdochs."
Related Articles:
Jeremy Hunt held meetings with News Corp during five-day trip to the U.S. as they decided whether to bid for BSkyB
Jeremy Hunt resists calls to quit over BSkyB Murdoch links
Rupert Murdoch faces UK media ethics inquiry
Cameron family fortune made in tax havens
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Rupert
Murdoch is driven from the Leveson inquiry after
giving evidence. Photograph:
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
|
Related Articles:
Jeremy Hunt held meetings with News Corp during five-day trip to the U.S. as they decided whether to bid for BSkyB
Jeremy Hunt resists calls to quit over BSkyB Murdoch links
Rupert Murdoch faces UK media ethics inquiry
Cameron family fortune made in tax havens
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