The political scandal over Rupert Murdoch's battle to buy BSkyB moved closer to David Cameron last night after new evidence undermined the Prime Minister's claim that his Government was scrupulously even-handed in deciding on the £8 billion ($16.6 billion) deal.
A damning memo, released by the Leveson Inquiry, revealed thatCameron already knew his Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt was in favour of the bid, before he handed him quasi-judicial power to rule on it.
In the private message to the Prime Minister, Hunt told Cameron of James Murdoch's fury at his treatment, and stressed the importance of the deal going through. Only a month later, and despite knowing Hunt's views, Cameron handed him responsibility for making the decision on the bid. At the time he was under pressure from the Liberal Democrats to hand the decision over to a more impartial figure.
Importantly, the memo was also never seen by the then Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell, who later assured critics that Hunt's past statements did "not amount to a pre-judgment of the case in question". Cameron has previously said he had "nothing to do" with the specifics of the bid, and is now likely to be questioned on this at the inquiry.
At the Leveson Inquiry, which heard evidence from Hunt's special adviser Adam Smith and News Corp lobbyist Fred Michel, it emerged that:
Hunt may have misled Parliament over a statement claiming he'd had no contact with Michel other than official meetings. Messages released by the inquiry show he had texted him at least three times.
More than 1000 text messages were exchanged between News Corp and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport during the bid process, including 257 from Smith to Michel.
Michel admitted Smith had given him regular updates on the "timings" and "process" of the bid.
But the most damaging revelation was the memo from Hunt to the Prime Minister on November 19, 2010, in which he made clear his support for the Murdoch empire's ambition to take full control of BSkyB.
It also suggests Hunt was aware News Corp was plotting a "Wapping mark 2" by uniting print, internet and TV interests.
