George Osborne has finished giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. The Inquiry returns at 10am tomorrow morning to hear from Ed Miliband, Harriet Harman and Sir John Major.
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Summary of George Osborne's evidence
Osborne said that he didn't have any views on the BSkyB bid but was aware that it was a "political inconvenience".
When asked if he thought the fusion of news and opinion was a problem, he said it was "a blind alley for this inquiry" and that monitoring and distinguishing between fact and opinion would be difficult
Believed that Cable's comments in the Telegraph sting were wrong, but didn't think he should resign and stressed that when moving the BSkyB brief to another Cabinet member that they wanted it to be done without triggerring a reshuffle.
Osborne said that it made sense to pass on the BSkyB bid to Hunt and that legal advice was sought as to whether or not Hunt was suited to the quasi-judicial role of overseeing the bid.
In the infamous "I hope you like the solution text", Osborne said that 'the solution' referred to the problem with Cable's remark and the political storm it caused.
Osborne refutes this idea that you need the Sun's backing to win a General Election.
Osborne agrees that the PCC needs an overhaul and a better system of redress for vitcims needs to be putin place.
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Sky News tweets in: Scotland Yard hands the Crown Prosecution Service files on five journalists for decisions in relation to phone hacking.
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Echos of Theresa May’s evidence two weeks ago when discussing the issue of immigration, a small issue, but pitched as a very important issue by publications like the Daily Mail.
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Leveson now turns his attention to the representation of minorities in the press.
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GO: "One person's fact is another person's opinion"
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GO says the PCC needs a complete overhaul when discussing redress for victims of press mistreatement.
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GO: I err on the side of freedom of speech because you are at risk of muzzling free comment in a democratic society.
“If you construct some public interest test alongside freedom of speech you are in difficult territory because a powerful politicians will always invoke national security and economic national interest on why an inconvenient story shouldn’t be published.
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GO says that he remains good friends with Coulson although they haven't spoken for a year.
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Osborne cites that the Financial Times and the Economist supported the Conservatives in the 2010 General Election but refutes the idea that you need the support of the Sun to win a General Election.
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GO: "The endorsement of the Sun was one of a whole range of things we felt ewe had to get right.
"Even if we didn’t have endorsement of the Sun we would’ve still won the general election."
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Brooks did not express any surprise when Coulson was hired. GO said it was a brief conversation and likely that Coulson informed her beforehand.
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GO said he went for a drink with Coulson before he was hired and asked him about phone hacking, Coulson said 'no'.
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GO points out that the PCC said there was no evidence that he was involved with phone hacking when he resigned.
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GO said he was aware that hiring Coulson would've "attracted some controversy given the circumstances of his resignation."
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GO said he was aware that Coulson was friendly with Brooks, but it was not his decision to hire him.
Cameron had met him and spoke to a number of other Conservatives before he was hired.
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Jay asks GO if the appointment of Coulson was in anyway influenced by the appointment of Alistair Campbell under Blair.
Osborne points out that whilst Campbell was a pol editor, Coulson was editor of a newspaper as a whole and broadly covered different aspects of the media.
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GO cited qualities such as the ability to deal with the pressures of working in a large organisation and also shared his views and Conservative values.
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Jay quizzes GO on candidates for David Cameron's Director of Communications and recommended a few candidates including Andy Coulson and Guto Hari,
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Break
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GO says that legal advice was sought over Hunt's suitability for the quasi-judicial role of the BSkyB bid. However, Jay points out that the "I hope you like the solution" text was sent before legal advice was sought.
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The said meeting which discussed moving the BSkyB brief to DCMS took "less than an hour" according to GO.
Jay asks: "Why was there such a rush to get this sorted in less than one hour?"
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In relation to GO’s text “I hope you like the solution”
"I thought he would like the fact he was taking on additional responsibilities and 'the solution' refers to the problem we had with VC’s remark and that had caused a pol storm that day.”
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GO said it made sense to move the brief to DCMS.
Jay asks if there were any concerns about the views on Hunt who had expressed views on the bid.
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John Heywood suggested moving the brief to Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
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Believed what VC said was wrong but didn’t think he should resign. He said there was a meeting (etween the Permanent Secretary at No 10, the PMs close political team, PM's Private Secretary) to discuss a solution without triggering a wider Cabinet reshuffle.
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GO was first aware of the Cable sting through Robert Peston’s blog.
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Attention now turns to GO's Economics advisor Rupert Harrison, who had contact with Fred Michel.
GO describes RH's approach as "diplomatic" as he tried to "politely brush off" advances from FM.
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GO says that there was no substantive discussion between himself and Vince Cable or Jeremy Hunt in relation to the bid
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GO says that he didn't know what Cameron's views were on the BSkyB bid prompting some confusion with his earlier statement.
@jennirsl: Now this sounds odd - that Osborne didn't know PM's views on BSkyB bid and never discussed it. Yet it was 'political inconvenience'
@senoj_ttam: Mr Osborne is speaking b*******. Him and Cameron are best buds. Of course he knew what his view was.
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Jay : It’s unusual for someone to have a lack of interest in an issue that everyone was talking about
GO since I thought there was nothing I could do about it in the way the process was run as it was being run by BIS
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GO described the bid as a "political inconvenience".
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GO didn’t have strong views on the BSkyB bid but acknowledged that “it was going to cause us trouble one way or the other”
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GO did speak to James Murdoch in a phone call about the BSkyB bid at the end of November, but it was just a topic of conversation.
"People often raised but I would politely say that it was something I wasn't involved in."
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GO echos the evidence of Jeremy Hunt and other that James Murdoch was frustrated with Ofcom in relation to the news that the licence fee settlement was announced in October 2010.
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New Labour, Gordon Brown, Gideon, George Gideon Oliver Osborne, and Leveson are all trending on Twitter.
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GO says that New Labour were very aggressive in media management when in government.
"We learnt in a way from that and felt too that that govt in the early years had been too obsessed with tomorrow’s headline."
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Leveson: Politicians are entitled to be friendly wwith whomsoever they want, but the issue that does concern me is how one prevents the perception of influence
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Some people are missing the green lamp that we saw earlier when Gordon Brown gave evidence.
@AllyAllyOh: Did Gordon take the lamp with him?
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Some on Twitter are not taking too kindly to GO's assertion that it would be difficult to dinstinguish between fact and opinon:
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GO (On saying things on/off the record): If you're telling a journalist something that's so interesting they feel bound to report it, they will.
GO says his meetings with media proprietors were off the record and informal
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A lot of people on Twitter now referring to GO as "Gideon", although with less enthusiasm when we discovered Hugh Grant's middle name was "Mungo"
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Jay now turns to GO's contact with media proprietors.
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GO: "Power of broadcasters is enormous, it's power excercised with responsibility, but significant."
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Jay asks GO if the fusion of news and comment is of concern.
GO says that it's a "blind alley for this inquiry" and that trying to distinguish between fact, comment and opinion in newspapers is going to be extremely difficult to monitor and police.
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GO: the public are much smarter in this whole process than is sometimes given credit for
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GO says that the public are smart enough to "sniff it out" if something's wrong
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GO acknowledges that newspapers are “commercial products to be sold to the public and unless they hold some view they are unlikely to sell to their readers.”
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Leveson says: “It is quite wrong to suggest that you have been required to give evidence after Mr Hunt (i.e. as a result of Hunt's evidence).”
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GO is sworn in and gives his name as George Gideon Oliver Osborne.
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Former News of the World Editor Phil Hall told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that Brown’s advisors did brief against other politicians despite the evidence he gave earlier that he didn’t brief against Blair.. Hall said: “To be saying on oath, publicly, that his spin doctors didn't spin against his political rivals, it really defies belief."
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Lunchtime round up
Brown denies ever giving consent to Rebekah Brooks to publish his son’s medical details in the Sun.
Brown says he doesn’t think the PCC’s complaints system works properly.
Like Blair did two weeks at the Inquiry, Brown acknowledged how the internet has changed the nature of journalism, often referring to the term “citizen journalist”.
Brown said that he could not go along with News International’s “aggressive public agenda” when it became clear that they were putting commercial interests first.
Brown never exchanged personal contact details with the Murdochs (including his mobile number) and that all avenues of communication had to go through Downing Street.
Brown only ever had one phone call with Rupert Murdoch and it was in relation to support for the war in Afghanistan
Brown denies that a call in which he “declared war” on Murdoch took place.
Brown denies telling his aides to brief against Blair in order to force him to resign.
Brown stresses the need to “incentivize good journalism” and calls for the need to support “quality journalism”.
Brown says that he thinks the relationship between politicians and press should be more open.
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GB says there was no call, discussion, text or conversation with Murdoch at all an stands by his earlier statement that only one phone call took place between him and Murdoch in relation to Afghanistan, and that there was no call about the Sun support for the Conservative Party.
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Rhdori Davis QC for News International steps up to question GB on Lord Mandelson's evidence in relation to Sun withdrawing support from the Labour party.
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GB echos the sentiments of previous witnesses who agree that the new regulatory body needs to be independent of politicians and editors
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Cameron said that the press-politicians relationship needs to be reset. GB says that there should be more open and adds that he's always looked for solutions that there is this idea that there is intereference by politicians in the press.
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GB: "Without shining the light on corruption maladministration and abusive power, people get away with things that are unacceptable."
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He cites the regular news reports about local newspapers “going under”.
Two weeks ago the editors of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror were sacked following the merging of the two papers into one.
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GB says that there is a problem about the lack of financing for quality journalism and that most internet journalism doesn’t have the resources to be persuasive and trusted.
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GB says that we should now focus on incentivizing the good and giving support to good quality journalism. This includes looking at a better complaints system and improving the quality of journalists in selling their work not just to newspapers but on the internet.
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GB says he doesn't think the present system in relation to dealing with complaints is not satisfactory.
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Jay asked if GB discussed any concerns about the issues with Ed Miliband. GB says he cannot recall any specific conversations but remembers one with Nick Clegg at one point.
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Lisa O'Carroll from the Guardian has tweeted in GB's letter to the Inquiry in relation to GB's phone call where he allegedly "declared war" on Murdoch. The letter can be read here.
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GB was well aware that News International wanted to get rid of TW when he was Minister.
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Inquiry now turns their attention to Tom Watson and the alleged pressures from government to sack TW.
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GB is calling for members of the press who are no traditionally part of the "lobby system" to be involved. Essentially calling for an end to "lobby briefings" in favour of public hearings with TV cameras.
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GB (on political appointments of press officers):You cannot say it's worked in its entirety.
"I would prefer a more open system and think we'll get to that some point."
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GB: Determined to integrate political advisors into civil service system.
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GB (on the nature of politics): There are rumours, gossip, innuendo and allegations
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GB seems to be tensing up.
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@tom_watson: I'm on a train and missing Leveson but my twitter timeline is incredible to read.
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McBride was a career civil servant, only became a political advisor in 2005. “McBride was pushed back from the front line but in this he made a very bad mistake and had to go.”
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The Inquiry now turn their attention to Damian McBride.
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GB denies giving permission to Ed Balls and others to brief against Blair.
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GB disagrees with Brooks statement that Blair and his aides suspected that GB and his aides were attempting to use the media to force Blair's resignation.
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Jay now turns his attention to Spads.
GB said that one thing he insisted upon was that anything Spads did in relation to the press had to be reported to the head of communications.
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GB said that he wanted a public interest amendment to the PCC code
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GB says he was in favour of a public interest clause in the Data Protection Act to protect journalists.
GB discusses the Information Commissioner's proposals on data protection during his time as PM and his own instinct was that there should be a public interest defence in all press coverage.
He says he made up his mind on this before a September 2007 meeting with Dacre, Telegraph Media Group's Murdoch MacLennan and News International's Les Hinton.
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GB "I would rather have been an honest one-term PM than a dishonest two-term PM"
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NHS Fife have released a statement in relation to the Sun's story about GB's son's medical condition:
"Any breach of confidentiality in the NHS is unacceptable. We now accept that it is highly likely that, sometime in 2006, a member of staff in NHS Fife spoke, without authorisation, about the medical condition of Mr Brown's son, Fraser."
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"Dacre was very kind when we had difficulties with our first child, I have not forgotten that, but had no support from Mail."
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GB warned Dacre after the election that the party in power was one which supported the Murdochs and that he should be careful.
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Jay turns his attention to GB's relationship with Paul Dacre. GB said he didn’t see Dacre that much and although they disagreed about many things they got along well.
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@GaryRaymond_: I think Gordo is giving a very good performance. A shame some of the media continue to just mock him.
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Murdoch asked GB to phone Brooks who hinted that she wanted to apologise for what had happened in relation to the story, which was headlined “Bloody disgrace.”
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A few people have noticed the green lamp on the desk and are trying to get #lampontheright trending on Twitter. Let's see if this catches on.
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GB expressed concern with the distortion of fact and opinion in relation the a conversation between himself and the mother of a deceased soldier. GB said that the Sun had only printed out parts of the conversation.
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GB: “Sun was damaging effort in Afghanistan.” The Inquiry now turns their attention to the incident involving An infamous letter to a mother whose son died in Afghanistan.
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GB denies stories that he slammed the phone on Rupert Murdoch and threatened him after the Sun withdrew their support from Labour.
GB denies that such a conversation took place. GB said that after September 30th after the Sun threw their support behind the Conservatives he felt there was no point in contacting the Murdochs and felt it would've been inappropriate to.
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Records show that Murdoch and GB only exchanged 11 phone calls between 2007-09.
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GB wouldn’t have the mobile numbers of media proprietors on his mobile phone and only received one letter from Murdoch through Downing Street.
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Jay now turns his attention to GB's contact with the media. GB said that all avenues of communication with the media would only go through Downing Street.
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GB' performance has provoked some mixed reactions from those Tweeting in.
@FelicityParkes: On a scale of 1 to Samantha Brick; how delusional is Gordon Brown?
@NathanConstable (in response to an earlier tweet: "Has the Leveson stream crashed?"): I think Mr Brown bored it to death
@Badger5000: I quite miss Gordon Brown. Hugely flawed oh aye but he's a bigger & better man that any of the current shower. Yeah, I said it.
@johnmc72: Gordon Brown giving thoughtful, unspun and compelling evidence to Leveson
@smacfayden11: Basically, I heart Gordon Brown
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Break
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GB denies Lord Mandelson’s comment that he was angry that the Sun withdrew support from the Labour Party. He says a more accurate word would be that he was “offended by the way they did it.”
"I've never asked a newspaper for its support directly and I never complained to them directly"
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Ken Clarke in his evidence said that GB was obsessed by the newspapers. GB denies this and says that he rarely't read newspapers whilst he was in Downing Street but added that it was important to be informed and again refers to the 24-hours new culture and acknowledged that he would be asked a variety of questions on different issues.
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Jay asks: "Were you not concerned about the signs of the Sun moving away to support the Conservatives?"
GB says he wasn't surprised and sensed they were moving away when he became prime minister and that the act of going to the Conservatives had been planned for months.
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"Original point was that we accepted too easily a closed culture where it was possible for stories about political events to be told to a few people rather than openly."
"The system is waiting to be reformed now and relies on too small a number of people."
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GB says that it's fair to say that he had a "warm relationship" with Murdoch but adds that he had very few dealings with Murdoch and not many with News International.
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GB: The idea that I was influenced by Murdoch’s news was ridiculous.
GB jokes that if he were influenced by Murdoch "He would’ve had us at war with France and Germany and would’ve had us as the 51st state of America."
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GB disagrees with Lord Mandleson’s statement that "relations (with the media) was closer than wise."
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Inquiry now turns to GB's meetings with the media. GB said that if he didn’t have meetings with editors he would be failing in his duty if he didn’t and attended functions with members of the media whenever he could.
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GB acknowledges that politicians must expect scrutiny and no doubt that the level of scrutiny in modern age will be great.
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GB: Problem was that the Conservatives went along with it whilst Labour defended what they say was the public interest
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GB: NI had an aggressive public agenda from changing BBC, Ofcom, media impartiality rules, change in rules for advertising and open up sporting events.
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Brooks (under oath) said that she was given consent by Sarah Brown to publish information on their son's medical condition. GB denies this and some speculation on Twitter that Brooks has been lying under oath
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GB stresses that his wife's charity work was separate from his political work. Sarah Brown is also present at the Leveson Inquiry.
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Jay quizzes GB on his wife's relationship with Rebekah Brooks. GB says that "Sarah is the most forgiving person."
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GB and his wife asked the editors not to cover the lives of their children and didn’t want them to grow up as minor celebrities and wanted them to be treated “just like everbody else.”
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GB: Surely the rights of children must come first.
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GB: I don't think there’s any parent in the land that would give explicit permission for their child’s medical condition to be broadcast in a newspaper.
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GB asked if he knew the source. He said he was told that the source was “a man on the street”, GB adds that he never believed that was true as only a few medical people knew.
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Jay now turns his attention to the story about his son. GB says that it is difficult because he never sought to bring his children into the public domain.
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GB: When NI decided their commercial interests came first, we could not go along with agenda, this included the neutering of Ofcom, cut in BBC license fee, or the case of it being taken out of its work from the internet, which is a valuable source.
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GB described James Murdoch's speech as full of "breathtaking arrogance"
GB: “I’m afraid to say the Conservative Party supported every single one of the recommendations made by the Murdoch group.”
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Robert Jay QC turns his attention to the Sun's support of the Labour Party until the general election.
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GB: If you conflate fact and opinion and then sensationalise it and say it’s about the person you are attacking, that’s not a healthy sign for democracy
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On conflation of fact and opinion, GB cites Afghanistan issue and how the media has sensationalised, trivialised and demonised a complex issue into a case of “he doesn’t care about troops."
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GB suggests that the licence fee should include internet and print media.
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GB: "We are now in an internet age and there is a massive flow of information."
Allusion to Tony Blair's appearance at the Leveson Inquiry where he acknowledged how the internet has changecd the journalism culture.
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matter of upholding standards of journalism
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GB says he doesn’t think the PCC complaints system works properly.
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GB acknowledges that families such as the Dowlers acknowledge the need for a free press but the main concern is the threat to individual privacy. In response to “Who will guard the guardians?”, GB says it’s a question of “who will guard the defenceless?”
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GB acknowledges that the media have a duty and should continue shining a torch on unaccountable power.
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Gordon Brown has been sworn in and has given his name as James Gordon Brown.
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Leveson: The BSkyB bid is only a small part of the story.
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Leveson acknowledges that some might want him to investigate all manner of issues, but he is keen that the inquiry remains on the correct track, which is to look at the “much wider sweep of history across party political boundaries and not to challenge the present the government”
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Leveson: “The present focus is on press-politicians and not concerned with inter-party politics and power politics of personality.”
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Leveson is addressing the court. He acknowledges that the Inquiry has received “intense public interest”, and acknowledges that it is important the Inquiry benefits from cross party support.
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@IndexLeveson have posted a draft criteria for a regulatory solution, which can be read here.
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Lord Justice Leveson will make an opening statement to the Inquiry.
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