Leveson inquiry: Hunt accused of giving News Corp special access over BSkyB bid
Source: The Guardian
The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has been accused of acting as a "cheerleader" and operating a secret back channel with News Corporation executives to assist the passage of the company's bid for all of BSkyB.
The charges against the cabinet minister emerged during questioning at the Leveson inquiry on Tuesday over a series of emails submitted to the inquiry by Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chairman and chief executive.
His son, James, was shown some of the emails written by his chief lobbyist, Frédéric Michel, which appeared to show that News Corp was in close communication with Hunt when the business secretary, Vince Cable, was deciding on the bid to take full control of the pay-TV giant BSkyB.
Hunt's special adviser phoned Michel on 15 June 2010, shortly after the £8bn takeover was announced, to tell him in an email he sent to Murdoch that there "shouldn't be media plurality issue (with News Corp's bid for Sky) and believed the UK government would be supportive throughout the process".
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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/apr/24/leveson-inquiry-hunt-newscorp-bskyb?CMP=NECNETTXT8187
[div class="excerpt"]Jeremy Hunt faces calls to resign over BSkyB claims
Labour has called for the resignation of the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, over allegations that he set up a private back channel to News Corporation at a time when he was charged with making a quasi-judicial decision on whether to allow its takeover of BSkyB.
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Aides to Hunt insisted he was not going to quit and said he was satisfied he had behaved with complete propriety throughout the regulatory process relating to the Sky bid.
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One email sent by Michel on 23 January 2011 drew gasps in court 73 as the counsel for the Leveson inquiry, Robert Jay, read out the lobbyist's boasts about how he had obtained information from Hunt about a statement he was about to make on the BSkyB bid.
"Confidential. JH statement. Managed to get some infos on the plans for tomorrow (although absolutely illegal)." Murdoch told the inquiry he thought this was a joke.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/24/jeremy-hunt-calls-resign-bskyb?newsfeed=true
Sky News's own take on it:
[div class="excerpt"]Jeremy Hunt is firmly in the headlights following James Murdoch's evidence to the Leveson inquiry.
One wonders what the Culture Secretary must feel about Mr Murdoch's motivations.
The email train between Mr Hunt's office and Newscorp that has proven dynamite was provided by Rupert Murdoch, who gives evidence on Wednesday.
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They clearly give the impression that the Culture Secretary was willing to accommodate Newscorp in a way that some outside observers would undoubtedly view as inappropriate.
http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16215011
Heh: Betting suspended on whether Hunt will resign
"absolutely illegal"? James Murdoch, having had to plead ignorance before, is now reduced to "it was just a joke, probably".
= new reply since forum marked as read
