Andrew Bridgen
Main Page: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)Department Debates - View all Andrew Bridgen's debates with the Cabinet Office
(11 years, 12 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Prime Minister
On the issue of whether politicians should be taken out of media merger decisions, Lord Justice Leveson finds that that should not happen. He says this is an issue about which someone has to be the decision-maker, and he believes that a politician acting correctly in a quasi-judicial capacity is the right person. The findings about how my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), the then Culture Secretary, acted bear good reading.
Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)
The report’s executive summary makes it clear that
“successive Labour administrations, in power for 13 years…made no more progress than their predecessors in addressing problems in the culture, practices and ethics of the press”.
Does my right hon. Friend agree? Also, given all the noise the hon. Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson) has produced on this topic, does my right hon. Friend share my surprise that he is not present in the Chamber?
The Prime Minister
My hon. Friend makes an important point. We have made more progress on addressing these issues in the last two and a half years than was made during the previous 13.