The Independent/London
The Liberal Democrats are ready to back an inquiry into whether Jeremy Hunt broke the ministerial code in an attempt to draw a line under the row over the culture secretary’s handling of the BSkyB deal.
In an escalation of coalition tensions over the Tories’ close relations with Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, the LibDems could support a Labour motion that is expected to call on David Cameron to refer Hunt to Sir Alex Allan, his adviser on the ministerial code.
Despite mounting pressure from opponents, constitutional experts and even some Conservative MPs, Downing Street has repeatedly refused to call Sir Alex in.
The culture secretary emerged from six hours before the Leveson inquiry last week with his career intact. The prime minister dismissed calls for an inquiry 25 minutes after Hunt had finished giving evidence on Thursday evening, although critics claimed the hearing proved he had misled parliament on more than one occasion.
But Labour leaders plan to use an Opposition Day debate when the Commons returns next week to ratchet up pressure on Cameron to act. The final details of the motion have yet to be agreed, but it is understood it will stop short of a vote of no confidence, in an attempt to persuade wavering LibDem and Tory MPs to back it too.
And a senior LibDem source said that while most of the party’s MPs would not go so far as demanding Hunt be fired, they could decide at a meeting on June 12 to support Labour in asking Sir Alex to investigate.
The source said: “There is a difference between whether he stays or goes, and whether he should be referred to the adviser on the ministerial code.”
The Labour attack is expected to focus on two distinct areas – Hunt’s alleged failure to take responsibility for his former special adviser, Adam Smith, and claims that he misled MPs over the extent of his own contacts with the Murdoch empire.
Smith resigned in April after it emerged that he had exchanged hundreds of texts and e-mails with News Corporation while Hunt was considering the proposal to take over BSkyB.
Labour MPs insist Hunt misled parliament when he said he had made no intervention to influence the BSkyB decision, and when he claimed his contact with the News Corporation lobbyist Fred Michel had been only at official meetings. Evidence disclosed at the Leveson inquiry raised questions about both claims, including the revelation that Hunt wrote a memo to the prime minister in November 2010 in support of the bid.
Cameron strengthened the ministerial code when he became prime minister in an attempt to improve faith in the political system. But Sir Philip Mawer, who was Sir Alex’s predecessor, expressed “frustration” that he had not been asked to investigate the former defence secretary, Liam Fox, and his bizarre working relationship with his friend Adam Werritty.
Harriet Harman, Labour’s deputy leader and culture spokesman, said Cameron’s “arrogant” refusal to sanction an investigation into Hunt “fundamentally undermined” his independent adviser on the code.
She added: “It is evident to everyone, including David Cameron, that Jeremy Hunt misled parliament and broke the ministerial code. The only person who can formally investigate, and find Hunt guilty, is Sir Alex Allan, and the only person who can allow him to do that is the prime minister, who persists in refusing. If this scenario were taking place in a distant country with no democracy, we would find it hard to stomach; the fact that this is happening in Britain today beggars belief.”
A Cabinet Office spokesman said that Sir Alex, who is paid £20,000 a year, carries out other duties, including offering advice to ministers and senior civil servants on their private interests.
He added: “Sir Alex isn’t paid to sit around waiting for a call from the prime minister.”