Cameron under fire for not coming to Commons to answer questions on Hackgate

By Tim Montgomerie
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David Cameron is likely to face another rough press tomorrow after sending Jeremy Hunt to the House of Commons to update MPs on 'Hackgate'. While Mr Hunt was able to tell the Commons that he was now referring NewsCorp's BSkyB bid to the Competition Commission he was unable to answer all questions from Ed Miliband and other Labour MPs on, for example, the extent of David Cameron's recent contact with Andy Coulson and other senior NewsCorp executives. The Leader of the Opposition said Cameron should have come to Parliament to answer MPs' question - just as he answered journalists' questions last Friday. Both Christopher Hope of The Telegraph and Tim Shipman of the Daily Mail (ie not the usual suspects) tweeted agreement...

Jeremy Hunt gave a robust defence of the Coalition's position and said that a fiery Ed Miliband had set the wrong tone. The Culture Secretary said Labour had had ample opportunity to investigate hacking when they were in power and had been asked by the select committee covering the brief to do so. Not only had Labour failed to act Mr Hunt attacked Ed Miliband for double standards in employing Tom Baldwin; a former Times journalist accused by Lord Ashcroft of dirty journalism.

The news continues to get worse for News International. The Guardian has now accused other Murdoch titles of foul play against Gordon Brown. The former Prime Minister was it appears targeted by The Sun and The Sunday Times:

• Scotland Yard has discovered references to both Brown and his wife, Sarah, in paperwork seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who specialised in phone hacking for the News of the World;
• Abbey National bank found evidence suggesting that a "blagger" acting for the Sunday Times on six occasions posed as Brown and gained details from his account;
• London lawyers, Allen & Overy, were tricked into handing over details from his file by a conman working for the Sunday Times;
• Details from his infant son's medical records were obtained by the Sun, who published a story about the child's serious illness.

More in The Guardian.

VIDEO OF KEY SECTION FROM JEREMY HUNT'S STATEMENT