Revenge of the Murdochs

Today James Murdoch made an appearance at the Leveson Enquiry and released some explosive information. He has basically accused Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, of being corrupt. We all remember the scandal surrounding the Murdoch Empire that erupted last year, one of the effects of it was that News International stopped attempting to purchase a majority stake in BSkyB. Prior to this, Jeremy Hunt had been tasked with deciding whether or not the takeover would be fair and maintain a balanced media. Hunt was supposed to be acting in a quasi-juidicial fashion, taking a neutral stance and deciding whether or not the bid could go ahead based on evidence provided. What James Murdoch has revealed is that he had a huge amount of contact with Hunt throughout the whole process, with Hunt providing information that should have never been leaked.

Jeremy Hunt is facing calls to resign

The Conservative hierarchy in Downing Street have rallied around Hunt, especially the Prime Minister. They claim that the contact used by Murdoch is not trustworthy and that he was simply lying to make him seem like a big player to his boss, James Murdoch. Yet there is one big piece of evidence that throws the spanner into the works of this theory, an email from the contact to Murdoch on the 24^th of January 2011 explained how he had had a meeting with JH (supposedly Jeremy Hunt or one of his staff) in which they discussed the details of an address that Hunt would give the House of Commons the following day. In the email quite precise detail is revealed about how Mr Hunt was to reject calls for a review over the BSkyB bid, which would have slowed the process down for at least a couple of months.

Hunt is known to be a fan of the Murdochs, on his own website Hunt claims that the Murdoch Empire is essential to the health of British Media.  It may not prove his guilt but it does reveal that Hunt could not have approached this from a quasi-judicial perspective and should never have been chosen for this job.

Both Harriet Harman and Ed Miliband of Labour have called for Jeremy Hunt to resign over the scandal in a statement made yesterday Ed Miliband said: “He should resign. He himself said that his duty was to be transparent, impartial and fair in the BSkyB takeover. But now we know that he was providing advice, guidance and privileged access to News Corporation. He was acting as a back channel for the Murdochs.”

Although I do believe that the Labour Party should hold off calling for Mr Hunt’s immediate resignation I also believe that Cameron should not say he backs Hunt. Both should wait until all the evidence is in about this scandal, Hunt need time to reply to the allegations and Murdoch needs to provide more evidence of the alleged corruption.

Furious with the current coalition government for abandoning them the Murdochs' have taken their first revenge strike against the government. What is more important is that the tomorrow it is Rupert Murdoch's turn at answering questions at Leveson.