Uk politics

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

The phone hacking scandal tests the ties that bind the coalition

Gosh, this phone hacking scandal is moving at a pace. Fresh from the wire comes news that even the government is reviewing its advertising contracts with the News of the World; signs that Jeremy Hunt won’t budge on the BSkyB deal; as well as further interventions by everyone from Ed Miliband to Boris Johnson. Overarching all that, though, are the hardening differences of opinion between the Tories and the Lib Dems. The yellow half of the coalition is going further and further in pushing for both an enforced pause to the BSkyB deal and a judge-led inquiry into the whole mess. Both Lord Oakeshott and Simon Hughes have called for

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Web exclusive: Extended interview with David Cameron

We interview David Cameron for today’s issue of The Spectator. Here’s an extended version of that interview for CoffeeHousers: The most striking thing about David Cameron is how well rested he looks. You wouldn’t guess that he was the father of a ten-month-old baby, let alone Prime Minister. He has no bags under his eyes — unlike his staff. He also seems relaxed. He jovially beckons us in to his Downing Street office and then flops down into one of the two high-backed chairs and urges one of us to take the other: ‘the Chancellor’s chair’, he calls it, with a chuckle. The last time we interviewed him, during the

Peter Hoskin

The stakes rise for Rupert Murdoch

The business pages have more electricity to them than usual today, and all because of their overlap with the phone hacking scandal. In many ways, yesterday marked a turning point in the whole affair, in that it is now hitting Rupert Murdoch in the pocketbook. News Corporation shares — which had held up for a day or two — finally fell by 3.6 per cent, leaving its chairman and CEO some £120 million worse off. And, as we reported on the new Spectator Business Blog, shares in BSkyB took a similar course; due, no doubt, to prevailing concerns that Murdoch’s takeover might be posponed indefinitely. Ofcom are just one of

Wednesday

James Forsyth

The list of alleged victims grows longer as News International’s problems mount

The emotive list of alleged victims of phone hacking has grown again tonight. To Milly Dowler, the parents of the Soham victims, and survivors of 7/7 can now be added the families of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. It should be stressed that nothing has yet been proved in any of these cases. But this story is just getting bigger and bigger and more and more problematic for News International. Among tomorrow’s front pages, the FT’s will — I expect — cause particular concern at the top of the company. It declares ‘Murdoch investors take fright’. This along with the growing international interest in the story, threaten to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

This scandal will inflict huge reputational damage on the police

There’s only one thing that anyone in Westminster is talking about and that’s phone hacking. But one thing worth noting is that in every conversation I have had on the subject, MPs and Ministers have stressed that the police must not be let off the hook. For some on the Labour side—as John McTernan blogs with feeling—this is personal. But for the majority of parliamentarians, there’s just a feeling that certain policemen have been too easily corrupted, for too long. If newspapers were paying police, then the newspapers have obviously behaved badly. But those who accepted bribes are guilty of a far larger breach of the public trust. I suspect

David Blackburn

Murdoch stands by Brooks

Released by News Corporation this afternoon: “Statement from Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, News CorporationLondon, 6 July, 2011 – Recent allegations of phone hacking and making payments to police with respect to the News of the World are deplorable and unacceptable. I have made clear that our company must fully and proactively cooperate with the police in all investigations and that is exactly what News International has been doing and will continue to do under Rebekah Brooks’ leadership. We are committed to addressing these issues fully and have taken a number of important steps to prevent them from happening again. I have also appointed Joel Klein to provide

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s Coulson problems may be getting bigger

The Guardian’s story that News International believes that Rebekah Brooks was on holiday when Milly Dowler’s phone was allegedly hacked will place further pressure on Andy Coulson, who was her deputy editor at the time. This is the second piece of trouble for Coulson in the past 24 hours following last night’s revelations. Some in News International are unapologetic about how Coulson is being treated. They say that if Coulson had not gone into Downing Street then the whole phone hacking saga would not have got a second wind and there wouldn’t be all this trouble. Indeed, they allege that Coulson had assured a senior figure at News International that

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Miliband takes the battle honours

Wow. That was a hell of a session. It shouldn’t have been but it was. A few days ago Mr Miliband seemed to be in the dog-house again. Fresh from his Ed Nauseam interview to a TV reporter – when he repeated the same soundbite on public sector strikes about 36 times in a row – he’d been stung by Lord Goldsmith’s complaint that he was failing to connect with the public. But salvation arrived in the shape of News International. The worse things smell at Wapping the rosier it all is for the opposition leader. PMQs today was easy. All he had to do was to appear suitably revolted

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband gets serious about phone hacking

The striking thing about the phone hacking debate is that Ed Miliband is sitting on the Labour front bench, a statement of how seriously the Labour leader is now taking this issue. Miliband nodded vigorously when Chris Bryant declared that if Rebekah Brooks had a single shred of decency she would resign. Dominic Grieve is currently replying for the government and is taking a consensual line. I suspect that Grieve, unlike many ministers, has no great love for News International. His career has never recovered from his clashing, when Shadow Home Secretary, with Rebekah Brooks over how the tabloids report crime. It is said that from that day on, Andy

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A beating, but not as harsh as it might have been

PMQs today was a taste for David Cameron of what he will have to face over the coming weeks as the scandal surrounding the News of the World continues to grow. Ed Miliband asked him whether he agreed that Rebekah Brooks — a friend of Cameron’s —should resign and then mocked him when he wouldn’t answer. The Labour leader than pushed him on whether News International should be stopped from taking over BSkyB and derided him when he said the matter was out of his hands. Finally, he slammed him for his decision to bring Andy Coulson — who had resigned as editor of the News of the World because

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 6 July 2011

VERDICT: A crescendo of a PMQs, which started in sombre fashion but soon swelled into a vicious confrontation between the two leaders. It is strangely difficult to say who won, not least because both men had their moments. Ed Miliband’s persistent anger — including over Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of BSkyB — will have chimed with public sentiment. But Cameron went further than expected by backing a public inquiry into the phone hacking affair, and without much equivocation either. In the end, though, I’d say Miliband probably came out on top, for seeming less on the side of News International. 1242: No surprises from Cameron’s statement on Afghanistan. It was, in

Peter Hoskin

Schooling the judges

The judges are judging the judges, or at least judging by the cover of this morning’s Times (£) they are. “Radical reform of the selection of judges,” some leading figures tell the paper, “is needed to break the stranglehold of white Oxbridge males at the top of the judiciary.” The story continues inside the paper, with a tranche of statistics on just how white, Oxbridge and male the judiciary actually is (i.e. very). It all reminded me of a table we put together for Coffee House some months ago, and which I thought I’d excavate this morning. Here it is, with judges sitting firmly at the bottom: Of course, some

Peter Hoskin

Westminster prepares for a day of News International

The cascade of News of the World stories has, this morning, become a deluge. On top of last night’s Andy Coulson news — which, as George Eaton points out, really oughtn’t be that surprising — we have the Indepedent claiming that Rebekah Brooks personally “commissioned searches” from one of the private investigators tangled up in the Milly Dowler affair. The Guardian reveals that Cabinet ministers are minded to establish a full review into both ownership and regulation of the media. And the Telegraph suggests that the bereaved families of those killed in the 7 July bombing may have had their phones targeted. “It is thought that journalists were seeking to

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Andy Coulson thrown back into the story

On the Ten o’clock News tonight Robert Peston reported that News International have allegedly handed emails to the police that show Andy Coulson as editor of the News of the World authorised payments to the police. If this was true, it would be illegal. But it should be stressed that Peston could not reach Coulson for comment on the story. There are two immediate implications of this latest development in the story. First, the fact that this development has come out now shows that News International is keen to move the spotlight away from Rebekah Brooks. But given the Independent’s front page tomorrow this tactic is unlikely to succeed Second,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The parties take their positions as the phone hacking story deepens

The political plates on phone hacking are shifting rapidly. The story has now ‘gone mainstream’ following the accusations about how the phones of Milly Dowler and the parents of the Soham victims may have been hacked.  Politicians are racing to catch up. Ed Miliband is rapidly moving into a more robust position. The Labour leadership doesn’t want to appear vindictive, to turn this into Labour v. Murdoch. But they are now prepared to openly question the future of Rebekah Brooks and Ed Miliband’s language this evening about how ‘it is up to senior executives at the News of the World and News International to start taking responsibility for criminal activities

Peter Hoskin

Labour make a public inquiry their cause

I briefly mentioned Ed Miliband’s assertive remarks about the News of the World earlier. But it is worth returning to the video, above, to highlight one of his specific demands. “A police inquiry needs to take place without fear of favour,” said the Labour leader, “and then we need a much wider inquiry to restore the reputation of British journalism.” Harriet Harman has since echoed this sentiment in Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions, urging the government to “act” and establish a public inquiry into the newspaper trade. So, only hours after Tom Watson berated his party leadership for their timidity on this front, a public inquiry appears to have become official

Peter Hoskin

Rebekah Brooks statement on phone hacking

Released in the last hour or so: Dear All, When I wrote to you last week updating you on a number of business issues I did not anticipate having to do so again so soon. However, I wanted to address the company as a matter of urgency in light of the new claims against the News of the World. We were all appalled and shocked when we heard about these allegations yesterday. I have to tell you that I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened. Not just because I was editor of the News of the World at the time, but if the accusations are true,

Peter Hoskin

Regulators on the rack over phone hacking

The latest, hideous developments in the phone hacking scandal are emblazoned across all this morning’s papers — all, that is, expect the tabloids. And our political leadership is putting voice to its concerns, too. Only this morning, David Cameron said of the allegations surrounding the News of the World that, “If they are true, this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation.” And Ed Miliband has since given an atypically firm and assertive interview, calling on Rebekah Brooks to “consider her conscience and consider her position.” Perhaps he was stung by Tom Watson’s criticism, last night, that all three party leaders have “let the Dowler family down”

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Politics needs to respond to the changed phone hacking terrain

The politics of the phone hacking saga have changed dramatically in the last 24 hours. Up to now, it has been a scandal that has been of huge interest in political and media circles but hasn’t cut through to the public. But that could all be about to change with the allegation that Milly Dowler’s phone was hacked after she was abducted and voice mails deleted (it should, obviously, be noted that nothing has been proven in a court of law on this point yet). If this allegation is true, it shows just how out of control and unrestrained the culture of phone hacking was.      Tom Watson’s appearance

Peter Hoskin

The Afghan conflict creates other conflicts for Cameron

Another day, yesterday, to remind us of the precariousness of everything in Afghanistan. With David Cameron in the country, it was announced, first, that a British soldier had gone missing from his base; and, then, that the same soldier had been found dead with gunshot wounds. “His exact cause of death is still to be established,” said a spokesman, “and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance and death are currently under investigation.” His is the 375th British military death in the country since operations began. And, of course, the politics quiver on in the background. There had been reports at the weekend (£) that up to 800 more British troops could