You
may remember that when the whole of Parliament was asking that
the takeover of BSkyB be referred back to the Competition Commission,
on the question of the corporate governance of News international
as more and more revelation were exposed, the only 2 people who
opposed the idea were the Prime minister David Cameron and the
Culture secretary Mr Jeremy Hunt, who continually insisted they
had done everything by the law.
Ed Miliband forced a vote, backed by the Deputy Prime Minister
Nick Clegg, to refer the decision back to the Competition Commission.
They also pushed for an investigation by the culture committee
.
Cameron recalled Parliament on Wednesday to discuss the phone
hacking scandal, it turned out that he had a hard time of it,
especially justifying his claim that he had distanced himself
from the decision making process.
Several Labour MPs attempted to pin Mr Cameron down on what, if
anything, he had discussed with News International executives
such as Rebekah Brooks about the deal. During repeated questions
he did not deny outright ever mentioning the bid - but insisted
he had had no "inappropriate" conversations about it.
He was also questioned about his appointment of Andy Coulson,
in addition to the low level vetting, Mr. Cameron said he had
employed the services of a company of Private Investigators, when
asked on 4 occasions to name the company; he continually refused
to name them.
On the matter of Cameron’s insistence that he had not discussed
the BSkyB deal. The Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt “This
was not a matter of collective responsibility, this was a quasi-judicial
process”
It had been thought that it was on track to be approved, after
the government said it was going to accept assurances that Sky
News would be spun off as a separate company - rather than refer
it to the Competition Commission.
Mr Cameron faced repeated questions on the issue earlier and told
MPs he had had no "inappropriate conversations".
But in a later debate, Mr Hunt appeared to confirm that conversations
had taken place, telling MPs: "The discussions the prime
minister had on the BSkyB deal were irrelevant. They were irrelevant
because the person who had the responsibility... the person who
was making this decision was myself. I was making it on my own.
This was not a matter of collective responsibility, this was a
quasi-judicial process."
Labour have seized on remarks by the culture
secretary as an "admission" David Cameron had discussed
the BSkyB takeover bid with News International.
Labour's Ivan Lewis said the PM had previously "refused point
blank" to confirm conversations took place, he told the BBC
“The prime minister now has far more questions to answer,"
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