Phone Hacking and the Media

Alun Cairns Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am not quite sure that I understand the first and second halves of the right hon. Gentleman’s question, but let me just say that the second inquiry will absolutely concentrate on the ethics of the press. The lesson from last week is that what changed the public mood was the fact that phone hacking moved from being something that affected celebrities and politicians to something that tragically affected members of the public.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State regret that such serious and grave matters have been used for party political point scoring? Will he reassure the House that the investigations from hereon will still contain an invitation to the Leader of the Opposition to contribute constructively to such an important debate that is in all our interests?

[Mr Hunt]

I absolutely give that assurance to the House because we want to solve this problem. The Leader of the Opposition has to make up his mind whether he wants to continue with his party political posturing or tackle this problem in the national interest.