PM Defends Jeremy Hunt's Handling Of BSkyB Bid

The move to grant Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt responsibility for overseeing Rupert Murdoch's bid for BSkyB was not "botched" according to the Prime Minister.

Testifying before the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, David Cameron admitted that the pressures of the 24 hour news cycle led him to make a quick decision about the replacement for Business Secretary Vince Cable, when it was revealed Dr Cable was secretly recorded making inappropriate comments about "declaring war" on Mr Murdoch.

Mr Cameron admitted he had forgotten about an email Jeremy Hunt had sent to him, supporting theNews Corp bid, just weeks before the Culture Secretary was handed oversight of the process.

Although the Prime Minister acknowledged that email would have been considered in decision making process, he told the hearing it would not have changed the outcome.

Mr Cameron said he was given detailed legal evidence from Government lawyers and senior civil servants supporting the decision to let Jeremy Hunt take on the role.

"The haste was it was 3pm. The Business Secretary had said something which couldn't stand," Mr Cameron said.

"In this 24 hour news environment you cannot just spend hours or half days working out what you are going to do next."

But he added: "It was not some rushed, botched political decision."

The inquiry was told that extra training and guidance for Ministers and their special advisers would be given in the wake of controversy over the contact Jeremy Hunt's Department had with News Corporation at the time of their bid for BSkyB.

Mr Hunt's adviser Adam Smith resigned after admitting his contacts with a News Corp lobbyist had been too close.

On Wednesday, the Culture Secretary survived a Labour bid to secure Commons support for him to be investigated by a watchdog for alleged breaches of the ministerial code, including his responsibility for Mr Smith's actions.

The PM said there were lessons to be learned from that case and signalled that he was consulting with senior Whitehall mandarins on changes to the code - but said they were "not enormous".

The Prime Minister also told the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London that the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson would never have been hired as his communications director if there had been any evidence Mr Coulson knew about phone hacking.

Mr Cameron said he sought specific assurances over the issue, before hiring the former tabloid editor in 2007.

A few months earlier Mr Coulson had resigned from the News of the World, after the conviction of the newspaper's Royal editor and a private investigator for hacking into the voicemail messages of royal aides.

The Prime Minister said he met Mr Coulson in March 2007 at his Westminster offices.
"I raised the issue of phone hacking and sought the assurance in the face to face meeting we had in my office." He said.

"I knew it was very important to ask him that question and i did so."

Mr Cameron admitted he knew the appointment of Andy Coulson was controversial, because of what had happened at the Sunday newspaper and because he had been a tabloid editor.

The Prime Minister said: "I was giving him a 2nd chance."

"He did the job very effectively... there weren't any complaints about the way he conducted himself. He ran a very effective team."

Mr Cameron said although he had been given advice from some not to hire him: "I needed someone tough and robust."

He told Robert Jay QC, Counsel to the Inquiry that the decision rested with him, he took responsibility: "You don't make decisions with 20/20 hindsight.. you don't try to run away from it."

The Prime Minister said that if he had been lied to, then so had the Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, a Parliamentary select committee and many others who had accepted those assurances.

He added: "If someone had given me evidence he knew about phone hacking, I wouldn't have employed him and I would have fired him."

The hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London was also shown more evidence about the close relationship between the Prime Minister and former Chief Executive of News International Rebekah Brooks  .

A text message between the pair was read to the inquiry.

Sent by Mrs Brooks on the eve of Mr Cameron's speech to the Conservative Party conference in 2009, and just days after The Sun switched its support to his party from Labour, it said: "I'm so rooting for you tomorrow not just as a proud friend but because professionally we are in this together. Speech of your life? Yes he Cam!"

Asked to explain the message, Mr Cameron said: "The Sun had made this decision to back the Conservatives, to part company with Labour.

"The Sun wanted to make sure it was helping the Conservative Party put its best foot forward with the policies we were announcing, the speech I was making. That's what that means."

He went on: "We were friends. But professionally, me as leader of the Conservative Party, her in newspapers, we were going to be pushing the same political agenda."

Mr Cameron acknowledged Rebekah Brooks is a close friend. He said their friendship had grown closer in recent years, after the former tabloid editor married the Prime Minister's neighbour, racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks.

The Brooks' are among a group of people charged in relation to an alleged attempt to cover-up phone hacking and other criminality at the News of World.

The couple made their first court appearance on Wednesday.

©Sky News