Tory Minister and News International.
Discussion
The career of the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt was hanging in the balance this afternoon after devastating emails revealed James Murdoch was told a controversial takeover wouldn't 'be a problem'.
The Tory minister, who took over the probe into News Corporation's bid to buy out all of BSkyB in autumn 2010, is alleged to have given the Murdoch empire repeated back-channel assurances that it was a done deal, the Leveson Inquiry was told today.
News Corp provided the inquiry 163 pages of internal correspondence from its senior executive Frederic Michel, who was in contact with Mr Hunt's office for more than a year.
As their damning contents were being read out in court to gasps of astonishment from all those listening, the bookmakers suspended any more bets on Mr Hunt to be the first minister to leave the Cabinet
Shortly after the £8bn takeover was announced in June 2010, Mr Hunt's special advisor told him in an email that there wouldn't be a monopoly issue with the bid and that he 'believed the UK government would be supportive throughout the process'.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134464/To...
The Tory minister, who took over the probe into News Corporation's bid to buy out all of BSkyB in autumn 2010, is alleged to have given the Murdoch empire repeated back-channel assurances that it was a done deal, the Leveson Inquiry was told today.
News Corp provided the inquiry 163 pages of internal correspondence from its senior executive Frederic Michel, who was in contact with Mr Hunt's office for more than a year.
As their damning contents were being read out in court to gasps of astonishment from all those listening, the bookmakers suspended any more bets on Mr Hunt to be the first minister to leave the Cabinet
Shortly after the £8bn takeover was announced in June 2010, Mr Hunt's special advisor told him in an email that there wouldn't be a monopoly issue with the bid and that he 'believed the UK government would be supportive throughout the process'.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134464/To...
David Cameron said in May 2011: "Jeremy Hunt had a quasi-judicial role to carry out, which he carried out in my view entirely properly."
Labour is calling for Hunt to resign. Number 10 is putting out an odd line that it has confidence in Hunt, but seemingly not in the way in which he and his department handled the BSkyB bid. That amounts to saying: "he's a nice bloke". But Number 10 will be desperate to hold on to the Culture Secretary, hoping to use him as a human shield. If he goes the main focus of the scandal will shift closer to the Prime Minister. Before the emergence of the sensational emails, there had already been the revelation in evidence at Leveson that, according to James Murdoch, he and David Cameron did discuss the BSkyB bid when they infamously met for Christmas dinner at Rebekah Brooks's house in the Cotswolds.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/iainmartin1/1001...
Bet Vince cable is having a quite chuckle about this.
Labour is calling for Hunt to resign. Number 10 is putting out an odd line that it has confidence in Hunt, but seemingly not in the way in which he and his department handled the BSkyB bid. That amounts to saying: "he's a nice bloke". But Number 10 will be desperate to hold on to the Culture Secretary, hoping to use him as a human shield. If he goes the main focus of the scandal will shift closer to the Prime Minister. Before the emergence of the sensational emails, there had already been the revelation in evidence at Leveson that, according to James Murdoch, he and David Cameron did discuss the BSkyB bid when they infamously met for Christmas dinner at Rebekah Brooks's house in the Cotswolds.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/iainmartin1/1001...
Bet Vince cable is having a quite chuckle about this.
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