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Conservative Party Jeremy Hunt Ed Miliband

Prime Minister explains to Commons why he opposes immediate inquiry in Hunt and BSkyB allegations

By Hamish Mackay

May 1, 2012 | 2 min read

Prime Minister David Cameron was forced by the Speaker, John Bercow to go to the House of Commons yesterday to explain why he was not launching an immediate inquiry into allegations that culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, breached the ministerial code over his handling of the News Corp bid for BSkyB.

According to Media Guardian: “It was the first time in 10 years that the Speaker has ordered a prime minister to come to the Commons, and Cameron had to cut short a local election campaign trip in Buckinghamshire to make a statement he believed was largely unnecessary.

“Sources close to Hunt accused Bercow of being ‘rotten with bias’, adding that he ‘should not be Speaker.

“As tempers frayed Cameron rounded on the Labour leader, Ed Miliband: ‘Endlessly questioning the integrity of someone when you do not have the evidence is bad judgment, rotten politics and plain wrong. We have learned something about the Labour leader today and I think it is something he will regret’," Cameron said.

Cameron told the Commons that it was better for Hunt's handling of the BSkyB bid to be examined under oath in public by the Leveson Inquiry, rather than by the independent adviser on the ministerial code, Sir Alex Allan.

Media Guardian added: “By the end of a one-hour statement that generated more heat than light, it did emerge that Cameron came to his current view that Hunt had not breached the ministerial code on the basis of the culture secretary's verbal assurances, and without seeing any written evidence.

“No 10 confirmed that the prime minister is not entitled to see any of the evidence submitted to the Leveson inquiry by Hunt as Cameron is also a witness to the inquiry.

“Downing Street conceded that Cameron has now invested personal political credibility in Hunt's innocence and that he would feel let down if evidence emerged to contradict Hunt's account.”

Conservative Party Jeremy Hunt Ed Miliband

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