Leveson Inquiry

John Hemming Excerpts

Thursday 29th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s points. My reading of this is that what is being recommended is to stop some of the exemptions from data protection that journalists currently have but to put in place a public interest defence at the end. I am advised that that could have a very bad effect on investigative journalism. Again, I think that, instead of just waving through what could be a very profound change, it is worth stopping, talking and having cross-party discussions about this. That is why I do not think anyone, by rights, really can stand up today and say, “I accept the Leveson inquiry in full.” They would not be doing their duty as legislators and as politicians if they did not actually have a look at what this means.

[John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD)]

Does the Prime Minister think that the Leader of the Opposition, in his enthusiasm for putting the Government in a strong position in respect of the regulator, forgot to call for the renaming of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the ministry of truth?

[The Prime Minister]

Well, we certainly have got a long way to the truth about the DCMS in this report, and I hope that colleagues will look at that very closely.