The three charges of conspiring to obstruct the course of justice brought against Rebekah Brooks on Tuesday, May 15, have pushed into the spotlight the lapses of ministers who were friendly with her and say they are transparent in dealings influencing the governance of the UK.
Evidence to the Leveson Inquiry revealed Chancellor George Osborne failed to declare that his government residence was the venue for a weekend social in September 2010 attended by, among others, Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie. Mrs Brooks was head of News International at the time.
The event took place while News International’s parent company, News Corp, was petitioning government minister Jeremy Hunt to allow its bid for a 100 per cent takeover of BSkyB.
Opposition Deputy Leader Harriet Harman said recently, “When senior members of a government are looking at a bid such as the BSkyB one, they have not only to make sure they act impartially but that they are seen to be acting impartially.
“Spending a weekend together with a senior executive of the company seeking approval for a bid such as this is not acting in a way that will be seen to be impartial.”
The omission came to light from a statement given to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics by Andy Coulson on Thursday, May 10. He attended the social event with his wife.
Mr Coulson was director of communications for the Conservative Party. Both he and Mrs Brooks had worked as chief editors on Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, which was a viable and popular Sunday paper at the time of the event.
Although the Chancellor’s Office has laid out three meetings between Mr Osborne and Mrs Brooks after the Conservatives formed a government in May 2010, it was not made clear that this social event was held in Dormeywood, a government building.
Dormeywood is a mansion in extensive grounds in rural Buckinghamshire that is provided by the state to support chancellors in their work. It has similar status to an embassy where a government official may live.
A meeting between Mr Osborne and the Brookses listed by the Chancellor’s Office took place in a restaurant in December 2010. Mrs Brooks told the Inquiry on May 11 that she discussed the written response of Ofcom to News Corp’s BSkyB bid.
Ofcom is the UK arbitrator of the communications industry. It is independent of government and regulates competition for broadcasting and the internet.
Mrs Brooks wrote an email the next day to Fred Michel, the News Corp lobbyist who had been conducting detailed email correspondence about the BSkyB bid with Jeremy Hunt’s Culture, Media and Sports office. She said Mr Osborne was “baffled” by Ofcom’s reply.
The dinner was meant to be social with Mr Osborne eating with his wife, the Brookses, and another couple.
News Corp’s plan to buy all remaining shares of BSkyB had been made known in June 2010.
In her evidence, Mrs Brooks said she had discussed the BSkyB deal briefly with Mr Osborne at the September stopover in Dormeywood.
Read on ... She described meetings and texts with Mr Cameron
She described meetings and texts with Mr Cameron, who had been friends with her husband since childhood. Both men attended Eton, an all-boys private school. She stated that when she brought up the takeover bid with Mr Cameron, he would not comment, saying it was not his jurisdiction.
The Brookses live in Oxfordshire near Mr Cameron’s constituency house. In his texts, she said, he liked signing off with “LOL”, thinking it meant “lots of love”.
Like Mr Osborne, Mr Cameron’s declared meetings with Mrs Brooks fall short in detail. His official list of meetings with proprietors, editors, and senior media executives stated four meetings with Mrs Brooks.
Not declared were a meeting at a point-to-point horse event on January 23, 2011 - a date made more significant as Mr Coulson had resigned from his 10 Downing Street job on January 21 after questions about his knowledge of phone hacking while the editor of the News Of The World.
There was also contact between the Brookses and Camerons at a fair in Chipping Norton.
10 Downing Street has said these meetings were not official and all the people the prime minister meets at events cannot be listed.
Also not declared were some 20 more meetings, which Mrs Brooks did not deny when put to her at a House of Commons Select Committee meeting.
The Leveson Inquiry’s barrister, Robert Jay, suggested to Mrs Brooks on May 11 that, as an employee of News International, she was not directly involved in the BSkyB negotiations but her knowledge of the standings of government ministers was important to the Murdochs in their takeover plans.
He inferred that her meetings with ministers were deliberate ploys on the side of News Corp. She denied this.
One senior aide in the Culture, Media and Sports department has resigned, as he said he went too far in his contact with News Corp. There have been calls for the minister of this department and others to resign.
There are demands for further disclosures of ministers’ meetings and there are speculations about whether Home Secretary Theresa May sent a message of condolence when Mrs Brooks resigned from her job as the phone-hacking accusations went deeper into News International.
All these ministers are part of the eight new core participants in the Leveson Inquiry. They will receive evidence before it is made public. And all except Mr Osborne are scheduled to answer questions under oath before Lord Justice Leveson and his team. The first will be Jeremy Hunt in a few weeks time.
However, previous Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were also friendly with the Murdoch and Brooks families. Although there was a famous falling-out between Mr Brown and Mrs Brooks, both ex-PMs sent messages of condolence to her when she left News International. And both will go before the Leveson Inquiry this year.
Mrs Brooks will appear at London’s Westminster magistrates’ court probably before early next week. This will be to initiate the case formally.
Conspiracy to pervert the course of justice cases can only be held in a high court before a judge and jury.
If convicted, sentences can go to life in prison. However, In Brief, a UK website giving free legal information, states, “Crown Prosecution Service guidelines for perversion of justice recommends a minimum sentences of four months and maximum sentences of one to two years per incident ... [and] ... there have not been any sentences above 10 years that have been passed in the last century for this offence.”
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