Phone-hacking: Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks face MPs – live

Rolling coverage of all the day’s developments as Rupert Murdoch, his son James and Rebekah Brooks face MPs’ questions over phone hacking 12.03pm: I’m watching on BBC News. Jon Sopel is playing to time at the moment. There’s an atmosphere of “subdued fevered excitement” at Wesminster, he said. Not sure what that means, but we get the point. With luck, Keith Vaz will put him out of his misery by starting the hearing soon. 11.55am: It’s all about to start. Sir Paul Stephenson , the outgoing commissioner of the Metropolitan police, is giving evidence to the home affairs committee first. They are due to start at 12pm. Here’s the resignation statement he made on Sunday. 11.48am: The Tories have put out a statement attacking Lord Kinnock for suggesting that impartiality rules should apply to the press. (See 10.31am.) This is from Michael Fallon , the deputy chairman of the Conservative party. For a politician to call for political control of the press is pretty sinister. Having spent the last decade and a half cosying up to the Murdoch press, Labour are now trying to turn this into a political vendetta which threatens to damage our democracy. Ed Miliband needs to distance himself from his mentor immediately. 11.45am: My colleague Paul Owen has been looking at today’s coverage of the hacking scandal in the British press. All the Guardian’s stories can be found here , including this piece by John Harris looking at the extent and reach of senior figures in News Corporation and News International and their influence on British politics and politicians. Also in today’s Guardian is this profile of Dick Fedorcio , the Metropolitan police’s director of public affairs and perhaps the most unfamiliar name giving evidence to MPs today ( see 8.12am for full running order ). It’s also worth revisiting Nick Davies’s list of questions the members of the culture committee should ask Murdoch, his son James, and Rebekah Brooks this afternoon. The Daily Mirror’s leader column suggests that David Cameron will be feeling “sick to the put of his stomach” when Rupert Murdoch gives evidence this afternoon. Murdoch Senior is most dangerous when he’s cornered and, among those he feels betrayed by, is a Prime Minister on the run. The Daily Mail reports on a BBC Radio 5 Live phone-in in which Ed Miliband was criticised for using the family of Milly Dowler as “a political football”. The Labour leader has won widespread praise elsewhere for his handling of the scandal. The Mail also repeats its call for “a sense of proportion” in covering the phone-hacking cases – particularly when the economies of Britain and the world are in such trouble. The Independent has an informative piece comparing the relationship between Sir Paul Stephenson and Neil Wallis with that between David Cameron and Andy Coulson. It concludes: Sir Paul is right to point out that he has taken responsibility for his force’s close relationship with News International in way political leaders have not. But it is difficult to equate the employment by police of a man who held a senior role at a newspaper they were being asked to investigate with No 10′s decision to employ an adept tabloid attack dog. The Times, a News International paper, says in a leader column that today is an “opportunity for sober clarity”, and lists a number of questions MPs should ask Brooks and the Murdochs. A Times/Populus poll echoes today’s Guardian/ICM survey in showing little benefit accruing to Labour in the scandal. 11.44am: My colleague Jane Martinson has sent me this from the queue for the culture committee hearing. A former employee of the now closed News of the World is waiting in the public queue. “I want to see the hairs on the back of Rupert Murdoch’s neck and I want to see Rebekah put on the spot.” Odd atmosphere here with public queue full of people reading books and sitting down and hacks chatting to each other. 11.38am: Is there any similarity between the phone hacking affair and the death of Diana? In a provocative article for Spiked Online, Brendan O’Neill says: “This is now something akin to a ‘Diana moment’, except we are implored to shelve our critical faculties in the name of collectively hating a mogul rather than collectively loving a princess.” O’Neill argues the commentators who are celebrating the phone hacking affair because it will weaken the power of the Murdoch empire are missing the point. Which brings us to the present day and the harebrained idea that loosening Murdoch’s alleged grip will liberate and re-populate with principle the British political sphere. Whatever you think of Murdoch – I am not a fan, and I believe that the phone-hacking antics at the News of the World were deplorable and indefensible – this is clearly nonsense. Because it was the already existing disarray of the British political sphere that empowered Murdoch in the first place. The respectable commentariat has effectively declared war on a man who was merely the beneficiary of historic political fallout, not the orchestrator of it. Remove him from the picture and those various profound problems – the emptying out of both left and right ideologies, the aloofness of the political class, the transformation of politics into a purely elite pastime – will still exist. Our politicians will still have nothing of substance to say, just fewer tabloids in which not to say it. 11.29am: The phone hacking affair is a “three-headed monster”, according to the Labour MP Chris Bryant. According to PoliticsHome, this is what he told BBC News. There was the original criminality at the News of the World – the phone hacking. There was the attempt to hush it up by News International and there was the failure of the Metropolitan police to investigate, probably because the Murdoch empire had all its tentacles creeping into every nook and cranny of the Metropolitan police … I think it is that combination that makes it into one of the biggest scandals that we’ve known in British political history for the last 75 years. 11.21am: Westminster feels as if it is in general election-mode because there’s so much interest in the select committee hearings. The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg says on Twitter she has seen 16 camera crews on College Green. And Paul Waugh, who is standing in the queue for the culture committee hearing, says on Twitter he’s seen the great Harry Evans, the former Sunday Times editor, try to barge his way to the front. 11.12am: Which papers benefited from the closure of the News of the World? My colleague Josh Halliday has been looking at the figures, and he says the Sunday Mirror did best, gaining almost 730,000 in sales. 11.02am: Dick Fedorcio, the Metropolitan police’s director of public affairs, is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission over his relationship with the former News of the World executive Neil Wallis, the Press Association is reporting. 10.52am: Today’s culture select committee hearing raises tricky legal problems because the committee won’t want anything to be said that could prejudice any court proceedings in the future. Joshua Rozenberg has written a guide to this problem for Guardian Law. 10.39am: A Labour MP has written to Sir Gus O’Donnell asking for an investigation into the allegation that David Cameron broke the ministerial code, the Daily Telegraph reports. John Mann has suggested that, in having dinner with James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks on 23 December last year (when the government was still considering News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB), Cameron broke the section of the code saying that “ministers must ensure that no conflict arises, or appears to arise, between their public duties and their private interests”. Number 10 has an independent adviser on ministerial interests who can investigate complaints of this kind. But, as the Telegraph points it, it is the prime minister himself who decides if a complaint merits investigation. Cameron will have to rule on himself. I think we can predict what he will say. 10.31am: As promised, but a bit late, here is what Neil Kinnock said about changing the law to ensure that the press is politically balanced. (See 8.26am.) I’ve taken the quote from PoliticsHome. We have had, since the 1950s, independent television, commercially independent and commercially run subject to a charter which it has honoured with great fidelity, and I see no reason at all why those general rules, which have certainly not impeded freedom of expression or activity in any way at all, shouldn’t have wider applications. When he was asked if he meant that the impartiality rules that apply to broadcasters should apply to the press, Kinnock replied: “What they require is balance, and I think that [that is] all that anyone would possibly ask for in terms of freedom of expression.” 10.20am: Mark Ferguson at LabourList has more on the way Labour’s Cathy Jamieson was excluded from the culture committee last night. (See 9.43am.) He names the Tory MP responsible. Last night Labour MP Cathy Jamieson should have been elected unopposed to the DCMS Select Committee, replacing the recently deceased David Cairns ahead of today’s showdown with Rebekah Brooks and the Murdochs. And yet Tory MP Nick De Bois decided to shout “object”, which meant that Jamieson has yet to be elected to the committee, and won’t be able to question the News International trio today. On his own blog, Paul Waugh suggests this might have been retaliation for a Labour attempt to keep David Laws off a committee dealing with the draft finance bill. I called De Bois to find out for myself why he blocked Jamieson. He was not available, but they took a message in his office. I’ll let you know if he rings back. 10.04am: According to the Press Association, a post-mortem examination is taking place this morning as police continued to investigate the death of Sean Hoare, the News of the World whistleblower. A Hertfordshire Police spokeswoman said: “The man’s next of kin have been informed and the family are being supported by police at this sad time.” Officers have yet to confirm arrangements for an inquest. 9.55am: Ed Miliband , the Labour leader, has said that he does not want today’s hearing with Rupert Murdoch to be a witch-hunt. According to PoliticsHome, this is what he told BBC News. I think this has to be done in a calm and level-headed way and I’m sure it will be on all sides of the house, from MPs from all parties, because the key thing here is to get to the truth. It is not about a witch-hunt. It’s about getting at the truth. “Not a witch-hunt” must be the line to take because Jim Sheridan , a Labour MP who sits on the culture committee, used exactly the same phrase when he was interviewed on Irish radio earlier. My colleague Lisa O’Carroll was listening. This is what Sheridan said about what he would be asking. I like to know what kind of relationship [Murdoch has] had with senior politicians, what influence does he think he has had … What it won’t be today, as some of the leading commentators were suggesting that it will be, [is] some sort of witch-hunt of the MPs against the press. That is certainly not what it’s about, we will be asking in a polite way, robust questions. 9.43am: John Prescott has just been on BBC News. He has revealed that the Labour MP Cathy Jamieson was lined up to be made a member of the culture committee but, when the motion to include her went before the Commons last night, it was blocked by Tories. Jamieson is a former justice minister in the Scottish executive and Prescott suggested that the move to exclude her was somehow connected with Tommy Sheridan’s libel case against the News of the World in Scotland, which ultimately led to Sheridan being convicted for perjury. 9.34am: Bob Crow, the RMT general secretary, has been told that it will take three months before the police can tell him whether he was a victim of phone hacking. “We have been informed by officers from Operation Weeting that it will be up to three months before we get answers from the investigations into the suspicion that Bob Crow, and possibly other officials of the RMT, were targeted by the news international hacking conspiracy,” an RMT spokesman said. 9.25am: It’s not true to say that Rupert Murdoch has never given evidence to a parliamentary committee before. Lord Fowler, the chairman of the Lords communications committee, has just told BBC News that Murdoch gave evidence to his committee four years ago. It was not in a public hearing. The committee flew to the US and spoke to Murdoch, and other media figures, in private. But they did publish minutes of their meeting. They are in appendix 4 of the committee’s report, The Ownership of the News. 9.18am: Chris Bryant , the Labour MP who has been campaigning on phone hacking for ages, has just dropped an intriguing hint about “more to come” in an interview on BBC News. The theatre of [today's appearance] is irrelevant. In the end we’ve got to get to the bottom of what is a very murky pool. And I tell you Rebekah Brooks was right. We’re only half way into that pool at the moment. There’s stuff about Surrey police as well and other things that are still to come out. When pressed, Bryant refused to say any more. Bryant was referring to reports saying that Brooks said that there were worse revelations to come when she told staff at the News of the World that the paper was closing. 9.14am: In the comments some readers have been asking who sits on the culture committee and on the home affairs committee. Here are the official lists. • Members of the culture committee • Members of the home affairs committee The BBC has also got a good list with mini profiles of all the members of the culture committee. 9.02am: Here’s a short reading list of hacking-related articles on the web this morning. • Bloomberg says News Corporation is thinking of replacing Rupert Murdoch as the company’s chief executive officer with Chase Carey. News Corp. is considering elevating Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey to chief executive officer to succeed Rupert Murdoch, people with knowledge of the situation said. A decision hasn’t been made and a move depends in part on Murdoch’s performance before the U.K. Parliament today, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Murdoch would remain chairman, the people said. News Corp. executives who watched Murdoch, 80, rehearse for his appearance had concerns about how he handled questions, according to three people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Murdoch and his son James are scheduled to discuss the company’s role in the alleged phone hacking of murder victims, members of the royal family and others by the News of the World, which was closed on July 10. • Paul Goodman at ConservativeHome wants to know why Downing Street is not fighting to protect David Cameron’s reputation. Where is the publicised push to haul Piers Morgan before a Select Committee? (The running on the story has been made by Guido Fawkes.) Why is there no campaign to ram home the message that the Daily Mirror carried out three times as many illegal transactions as the News of the World (according to the Information Commissioner)? Who advised the Prime Minister to fly off abroad rather than go on TV here – telling viewers that his priorities are theirs: curbing the deficit, controlling immigration, improving schools, tackling the Euro-zone crisis? How come published details of meetings with Rebekah Wade were wrong? The buck for all this stops not with CCHQ but with Number 10, where there are three main problems, which Downing Street sources themselves concede. First, that while Cameron’s relationship with Downing Street’s main players is strong, their relationship with each other is less so: Llewellyn, Oliver, Hilton and Cooper, for all their individual talents, haven’t bonded into a coherent, collective unit. Second, as Tim and I have repeatedly said (try here and here), there is no single, strong Lynton Crosby-type figure in command of the Downing Street operation: its flaws derive from there being no clear structure at the centre. Third, there is a shortage of grey hair. The appointment of Fallon to some degree made up for this. But no-one plays for Cameron the role that Stephen Sherbourne played for Michael Howard – the old hand who can draw on memories of past crises to deal with present ones. • Robert Pollock in the Wall Street Journal says that Rupert Murdoch has not tried to influence the editorial direction of the WSJ. Most people go about their business in semi-autonomous units, perhaps with a vague notion of pleasing someone distant up the chain of command, but most often with a simple desire to do their best job as they and their immediate colleagues see it. If you want an example of editorial independence at News Corp., look at how often “The Simpsons” mock their broadcasters at Fox. So what about the phone-hacking issue that now has politicians on both sides of the pond demanding investigations of the Murdoch “empire”? It’s not part of a corporate culture that I have been exposed to. Do I believe some editors and reporters could have skirted ethical norms without direction or knowledge at the top? Yes, such things happen in large organizations. 8.48am: Alastair Campbell has been doing the rounds this morning. He has made a few high-profile committee or inquiry appearances in his time and, according to PoliticsHome , he had this advice for Rupert Murdoch. The most important thing is to be right on top of [it], you’ve got to think through every question you’re going to be asked and you’ve got to think through what it is you’re likely to say and, I think, even more important than that, is having an overall strategy for it because it’s several hours. You need to think through what you want to come out of it at the end, what it is that you want to get over and the weak points in your argument that you know they’re going to come at. I didn’t rehearse but I certainly spent any spare time I had preparing for it and understanding it’s a really important moment. Sadly, he didn’t advise Murdoch to stick a drawing pin in his hand. This – supposedly – is the technique Campbell used to stop him losing his temper when he was giving evidence to a Commons committee in 2003 about his war with the BBC about its Iraq coverage. 8.43am: MPs who sit on select committees often get criticised (particularly by journalists) for not asking particularly good questions. On BBC Breakfast this morning Geoffrey Robertson QC made this point rather grandly. “None of the committee members are good examiners”, he said, in a discussion about the culture committee hearing. 8.40am: Just in case you missed it, here are some details about the story that broke last night about Scotland Yard employing a senior News of the World executive as an interpreter. This is from the story filed by the Press Association. Alex Marunchak had been employed by the Metropolitan Police as a Ukrainian language interpreter with access to highly sensitive police information. In a statement, Scotland Yard confirmed he had been on the Met’s list of interpreters – providing interpretation and translation services for victims, witnesses and suspects who do not speak English – between 1980 and 2000. It acknowledged that his employment “may cause concern”, adding that some professions may be “incompatible” with such a sensitive job. It said the Met’s language services were now looking into the matter. “Since the records system became electronic in 1996, we know that he undertook work as a Ukrainian language interpreter on one occasion in 1997 and six in 1999, as well as two translation assignments, totalling around 27 hours of work. It is likely he undertook work prior to 1996 as well,” the statement said. “Interpreters are vetted by the MPS and all sign the Official Secrets Act. They are employed on a freelance, self-employed basis. “We recognise that this may cause concern and that some professions may be incompatible with the role of an interpreter.” 8.32am: Earlier Sir Hugh Orde, (left) the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, was on the Today programme. He praised Sir Paul Stephenson and Paul Yates for the “honourable” way they both resigned, but the most newsworthy moment in the interview came when he dropped a clear hint that he would like to succeed Stephenson as commissioner of the Metropolitan police. Asked if he wanted the job, Orde replied: I think the dust needs to settle before anyone makes a decision on the way forward. Asked whether that meant he was waiting to decide whether to put his name forward, Orde said: “Exactly.” 8.26am: Neil Kinnock , the former Labour leader, has just given an interview to the Today programme. He resisted the temptation to say: “Will the last person to leave News International please turn out the lights?” But he did suggest that the press should be regulated in such a way as to enforce political balance. John Humphrys was so horrified that he almost fell of his chair (because he seemed to think the idea unworkable.) I’ll post the full quotes shortly. 8.12am: BSkyB haven’t yet launched Sky Select Committees as a premium pay channel, but there would be a lot of us who would willing to pay good money to watch Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks go through the wringer this afternoon. In one paper at the weekend this was described as the most important select committee hearing in parliament’s history and – although claims of this kind are generally, by their nature, implausible – it’s hard, off-hand, to think of any single hearing that beats it. But what are we going to actually find out? Two quotes in today’s Guardian are worth considering. In her article on the hearing, Jane Martinson points out that the Murdochs and Brooks will have two conflicting priorities. This will be the conundrum for the Murdoch team: how to present their man as an honest, open and humble executive who is sorry about past failings while at the same time shielding him from further inquiries. One senior media lawyer said: “The PR advice will be to look them in the eyes, tell the truth and look upfront for the global TV audience. The legal advice will be to say nothing.” And, in his article, Patrick Wintour quotes Tom Watson, the Labour MP who has been campaigning tirelessly on phone hacking and who sits on the culture committee. “There is not going to be a killer blow on Tuesday. Expectations are way too high,” [Watson] told the Guardian. “We will get the symbolism of parliament holding these people to account for the first time. We will look for facts, and not just offer rhetoric. This story has been like slicing a cucumber, you just get a little bit closer to the truth each time.” I”ve never heard the “cucumber theory” of select committee procedure before, but Watson is almost certainly on to something. The culture committee hearing is getting all the attention but, like a rival impresario, the home affairs committee’s Keith Vaz is also putting on his own show and he has got three of the most important figures from Scotland Yard giving evidence, as well as three other key witnesses coming on later. If anyone ever makes Hackgate: the movie , the story will involve a handful of key figures. Many of them are appearing in parliament today. Here’s the full running order. 12pm: Sir Paul Stephenson , the outgoing commissioner of the Metropolitan police, gives evidence to the home affairs committee. 12.45pm: Dick Fedorcio , director of public affairs at the Met, gives evidence to the home affairs committee. 1.15pm: John Yates , who resigned yesterday as assistant commissioner at the Met, gives evidence to the home affairs committee. 2.30pm: Rupert Murdoch and his son James give evidence to the culture committee. 3.30pm: Rebekah Brooks gives evidence to the culture committee. 5.30pm: Lord Macdonald , the former director of public prosecutions, gives evidence to the home affairs committee. 6pm: Keir Starmer , the current director of public prosecutions, gives evidence to the home affairs committee. 6.20pm: Mark Lewis, the solicitor representing the Dowler family , gives evidence to the home affairs committee. We’ll be blogging all the evidence in full, as well as bringing you all the other developments in the phone hacking story and rounding up the best reaction from the web. Phone hacking Newspapers Newspapers & magazines House of Commons Metropolitan police Rebekah Brooks Rupert Murdoch News International Andy Coulson Ed Miliband David Cameron News of the World Sir Paul Stephenson Police Keith Vaz Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 19, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.