So the fightback begins, and not just from Hunt, who quite fairly wants his day in court. The statement he put out last night claimed some of the information was inaccurate and it later emerged the the Permanent Secretary at Culture had given permission for Hunt SpAd Adam Smith to hand hold BSkyB through the bid. Guido doubts that permission would have extended to accurate pre-parliament tip-offs though…
The other man kicking back is the spinmeister Fred Michel who has given a less than subtle threat via Iain Martin:
“If a diary of all Fred Michel’s meetings with senior government figures and MPs was to be published at some point, then a lot of well-placed people in the three main parties would feature. Oh, and he’s a neighbour and close friend of Nick Clegg. This could get even messier.”
By the end of Rupert Murdoch’s testimony today we could all be talking about much more than Hunt…
Guido would not recommend a future poker career for Mr Hunt…
HT to @fieldproducer
Guido has been talking to a former Office of Fair Trading Principle Case Officer who is not confident Hunt can survive this as it brings into question their whole organisation:
“The first thing with mergers and acquisitions is that it is absolutely key to keep the parties at arms length. The OFT is a non government agency, it has a director general who is above the politics so that the BIS cannot lean on them. In practical terms we all know it happens, but to have it so clearly in writing undermines the whole system. It’s a nightmare for the whole structure of the agency.”
Even if there was no contact with “JH” and the News Corp lobbyist directly, the Culture Secretary’s adviser Adam Smith was obviously communicating heavily and the emails are littered with accurate reports of events before they happened. Direct contact or not, these emails are just two examples of both these key OFT rules being broken.
UPDATE: Hunt’s statement will apparently say that the emails are inaccurate and that he wants to set the record straight on the stand. He seems to be gearing up to play the no direct contact angle. Hard to prove that his office was not acting on his behalf…
News Corp lobbyist Frédéric Michel to Hunt SpAd Adam Smith:
“Does this mean you and Jeremy won’t be coming to Take That?”
Happy Hunting…
UPDATE:
Does this sound like a “completely transparent, impartial and fair” process?
UPDATE II: Harman calls for Hunt’s head. Probably buying him some time…
UPDATE III: Hunt’s people kicking back hard. Saying he will defend himself rigorously on his own outing on the stand and has no intention of resigning.
Jeremy Hunt told Parliament in March this year: “at every stage of this process we have sought to be completely transparent, impartial and fair.” Apart from that bit where Cable “declared war”.
At the Lobby briefing this morning Christopher Hope of the Telegraph asked No. 10 whether there had been any inappropriate communication between the Murdochs and Hunt. The reply was “no”.
This afternoon from we learn that Hunt’s people were sending briefings, updates and supportive words about the bid to Murdoch’s men. The cache of emails will be released at 4pm – there could well be a killer line. Someone who has seen files declares that they are “devastating”. The hunt is on…
UPDATE: Spokesman for PM says he has full confidence in Jeremy Hunt. The hare is running.
