Pressure grows on Hunt as Brooks is quizzed on email

UK Political Editor

Saturday 12 May 2012

LABOUR renewed its call for Jeremy Hunt to be sacked last night after a newly released email claimed the Culture Secretary wanted Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to "guide his and No 10's positioning" on the phone-hacking scandal.

DAVID CAMERON: Sent her texts. TONY BLAIR: Often dined with Brooks. JEREMY HUNT: Subject of claims.

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MICHAEL SETTLE UK POLITICAL EDITOR

The email – the thrust of which was denied by the Secretary of State – was published as the Leveson Inquiry's focus fell yesterday on the cosy relationship Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive at News International, enjoyed with David Cameron, revealing how the Prime Minister would end his texts to her "LOL", to mean "lots of love".

While Mrs Brooks spent several hours in the witness stand talking of her close relationships with Mr Cameron and Tony Blair and her not-so-close relationship with Gordon Brown, it was the email to her from Fred Michel, News Corporation's public affairs executive, which re-ignited the row over Mr Hunt's role. Dated June 27, 2001, the message appeared to preview what the Secretary of State would say about News Corp's £8 billion BSkyB bid later that week. It said: "He will be repeating the same narrative as the one he gave in Parliament few weeks ago. "This is based on his belief that the police are pursuing things thoroughly and phone hacking has nothing to do with the media plurality issues. It's extremely helpful." The email added: "JH is now starting to look into phone hacking/practices more thoroughly and has asked me to advise him privately in the coming weeks and guide his and No 10's positioning..."Asked about the email, Mrs Brooks merely said: "It speaks for itself." A month after it was sent reports emerged that Milly Dowler's mobile phone had been hacked, causing a public outcry, which led Mr Cameron to launch the Leveson Inquiry. Last night, a spokeswoman for Mr Hunt maintained the line that the Culture Secretary was "confident his evidence will vindicate the position that he has behaved with integrity on every issue". She stressed how it had already been made clear that when Mr Michel claimed he had spoken to Mr Hunt in emails, he was in fact referring to Adam Smith, his now former special adviser. However, the Secretary of State's protestations of innocence did not wash with Labour, which intensified its call for him to go. "People will be disgusted at the prospect of Jeremy Hunt and No 10 colluding with News Corporation to avoid a public inquiry into phone hacking," said Harriet Harman, Shadow Culture Secretary. "Jeremy Hunt was not on the side of victims and their families; instead, he wanted it swept under the carpet because he was straining every sinew to support News Corporation's bid for BSkyB." The Prime Minister, the Culture Secretary and other senior politicians, including First Minister Alex Salmond, are due to give evidence to the inquiry in a few weeks' time. Earlier yesterday, Mrs Brooks gave her eagerly-anticipated evidence about her relationships with the present and former Prime Ministers. She described her friendship with Mr Blair, whom she met or dined with on at least 30 times between 1998 and 2007, including three times tete-a-tete. Mrs Brooks said after she left News International last July on the back of the phone hacking scandal that she received commiserations from "some Tories" but "very few Labour politicians". "I received some indirect messages from No 10, No 11, the Home Office, the Foreign Office," she said. Mr Blair was among them but Mr Brown was not, adding to laughter: "He was probably getting the bunting out." Mrs Brooks denied hacking into medical records to discover Mr Brown's son Fraser had cystic fibrosis for a front page story in The Sun. She said the information came from a source connected to a charity for the condition. Last night, Gordon and Sarah Brown said it was still unclear how The Sun obtained details of their son's condition. "We remain concerned there is no satisfactory explanation of how private medical information, known to very few people, got into the hands of The Sun and the possible payments involved." On meetings with Mr Cameron and discussion of the BSkyB bid, she recalled it was mentioned at a dinner at her Oxfordshire home in December 2010. She also recalled a three-minute chat on the subject at the dinner with Chancellor George Osborne but insisted it was "not an inappropriate conversation". Read Rebekah Brooks' written evidence to the Leveson Inquiry

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Pressure grows on Hunt as Brooks is quizzed on email

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