Leveson Inquiry

Sheila Gilmore Excerpts

Wednesday 25th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. For the benefit not of the House, but of those who are listening to and interested in our proceedings, I make the factual observation that a request for a statement by the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport very properly comes from the shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, rather than from the shadow Secretary of State for International Development.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

The very many people throughout the country who wrote to us when the responsibility for the decision was transferred to the Secretary of State will now feel that they were absolutely right and the Government were absolutely wrong. Can the Secretary of State explain why he is such a poor manager of his staff that he did not know what messages were going out under the authority of the special permission to communicate?

[Mr Hunt]

I manage my staff closely but I do not know every—[Interruption.] Excuse me. I—