Published: September 10th 2010 - at 9:17 pm

Senior MPs told others to ‘back-off’ Coulson


by Newswire    

Channel 4 News has learned that members of the committee set up to investigate the phone hacking scandal shied away from forcing News International chief executive and former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks to attend a meeting with them.

After Mrs Brooks had repeatedly avoided being interviewed, four MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport committee wanted to ask the Serjeant at Arms, the Commons official in charge of security, to issue a warrant forcing her to attend.

In an exclusive interview, former Plaid Cymru MP, and a member of the committee, Adam Price said he was warned by a senior Conservative committee member that if the committee pursued this plan, the tabloids might punish him by looking into his personal life.

…

Adrian Sanders, a Liberal Democrat MP who also sat on the committee, told Channel 4 News the its chair John Whittingdale had hinted to colleagues of the personal repercussions of pursuing the newspaper group.

…. more at Channel 4 News


---------------------------
     Share on Tumblr  


About the author

· Other posts by


Story Filed Under: News


Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.


Reader comments


1. Cynical/Realist?

So, really, what you are saying is “MP’s back off Rebekah Brooks in case their muck is dug up”, where MPs decide themselves not to do it after a conversation with other MP’s.

Not so much “Senior MPs told others to ‘back-off’ Coulson” where you make it sound like senior Tory’s (yes you do) actively blocked investigation into Coulson.

Coulson’s name doesn’t even appear in the story. Same kind of journalism I expect from a tabloid really.

2. Chaise Guevara

AND that hyphen is grammatically incorrect!

3. dave

I liken all the newspapers being stuck in a cold war. They must all have enough dirt one each other to bury the whole industry.

4. margin4error

not even remotely surprising that papers make such threats – but it is a little alarming the MPs are being used to make threats on behalf of newspapers.

After all – the flip side to the threat is that ministers threaten back that they won’t provide leaks and interviews to said newspaper


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Senior Tories told MPs to 'back-off' pursuing Coulson http://bit.ly/aLNzeD

  2. Nicolas Redfern

    RT @libcon: Senior Tories told MPs to 'back-off' pursuing Coulson http://bit.ly/aLNzeD

  3. Andrew Griffiths

    RT @libcon: Senior Tories told MPs to 'back-off' pursuing Coulson http://bit.ly/aLNzeD

  4. Mark Edward Lewis

    RT @libcon: Senior Tories told MPs to 'back-off' pursuing Coulson http://bit.ly/aLNzeD

  5. Maizey R.

    http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/09/10/senior-tories-told-mps-to-back-off-pursuing-coulson/ <via Liberal Conspiracy re #tories #coulson

  6. Ashley Bullard

    RT @libcon: Senior Tories told MPs to 'back-off' pursuing Coulson http://bit.ly/aLNzeD

  7. Barry Kirby

    RT @poblish: poblish | 'Senior MPs told others to ‘back-off’ Coulson' http://bit.ly/aLNzeD

  8. Andy Sutherland

    RT @libcon: Senior Tories told MPs to 'back-off' pursuing Coulson http://bit.ly/aLNzeD

  9. Errol Murray

    RT @libcon: Senior Tories told MPs to 'back-off' pursuing Coulson http://bit.ly/aLNzeD





Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

 
Liberal Conspiracy is the UK's most popular left-of-centre politics blog. Our aim is to re-vitalise the liberal-left through discussion and action. More about us here.

You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
LATEST COMMENT PIECES
» Criticism of Obama for its own sake: a reply to Mehdi Hasan
» Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?
» There are alternatives to the reckless ‘Plan A’
» On Beecroft: it is already quite easy to sack people
» Why Cameron’s claim of 600,000 jobs created is plainly wrong
» By using age to allocate NHS funding, Lansley rewards Tory voters
» The rise in domestic violence deaths is not an “isolated” problem
» Adrian Beecroft highlights mindset of Tory right
» The US is now a model for the Eurozone to save itself
» The IMF plan to revive the economy doesn’t go far enough
» The Boris brand is weaker than his friends think
» Nine things you can do to halt Lansley’s destruction of our NHS






’43% of young women sexually harassed’
44 Comments



How Newsnight demonised a single mother
92 Comments



UKIP higher than Libdems over May
23 Comments



Red Tory Blond: gay marriage “homophobic”
50 Comments



Nick Cleg u-turns on economy too
10 Comments



Funny bits of TPA report you probably missed
26 Comments



Poll: banks not paying fair share for crisis
22 Comments



Frank Field wrong on workless households
69 Comments



TPA report quotes Bible to preach low taxation
44 Comments



Ed M disliked Byrne’s hard line on welfare
25 Comments



 LATEST COMMENTS
» Conby posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» Jim posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» So Much For Subtlety posted on Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?

» JC posted on Why Cameron's claim of 600,000 jobs created is plainly wrong

» pagar posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» So Much For Subtlety posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» D.O posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» So Much For Subtlety posted on Criticism of Obama for its own sake: a reply to Mehdi Hasan

» Briar posted on Do older people really need more NHS healthcare?

» Eddy Cool posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» Ben2 posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» pagar posted on '43% of young women sexually harassed'

» Amanda posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» Chloe posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother

» Zoroaster posted on How Newsnight demonised a single mother