David Cameron was hauled to the House of Commons on Monday to explain why he refused to open a separate government investigation to inquire into whether or not Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt broke ministerial rules over the BSkyB takeover bid.

Ed Miliband’s call for the Prime Minister to be dragged back to London from a regional tour to answer questions on why he refused to call a Whitehall inquiry into the case was responded to by Speaker John Bercow.

The decision of Speaker to push the Prime Minister to cancel his speech on the economy and society at Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes was not welcomed by Senior Tories.

“We are surprised that the Speaker decided to grant this. There is no new development and the Prime Minister and Jeremy Hunt have answered a lot of questions in the House,” said a Whitehall source.

Furious at being summoned to the Commons, Cameron refused calls for an inquiry into Jeremy Hunt’s handling of Murdoch’s bid for BSkyB, saying “I’ve seen no evidence to suggest, in handling this issue, the Secretary of State acted at any stage in a way contrary to the ministerial code.”

“The Culture Secretary is in clear breach of the ministerial code. The Prime Minister is defending the indefensible and he knows it. The Culture Secretary has to stay to protect the Prime Minister. The PM has shown he is incapable of doing his duty: too close to a powerful few, out of touch with everyone else”, Ed Miliband argued in the Commons.

Cameron was infuriated as Labour leader set out three evident breaches of the ministerial code before demanding an inquiry, while Culture Secretary sat nervously chewing gum throughout the exchange. The Labour leader also blamed Jeremy Hunt for misleading Parliament by claiming that he had published all documents relating to the Sky takeover bid.

“Endlessly questioning the integrity of someone when you don’t have the evidence is bad judgement, rotten politics and plain wrong”, raging Cameron replied to Ed Miliband’s blame.

Related:
Jeremy Hunt to disclose all correspondence with aide over Sky bid

Rupert Murdoch spills the bean about culture of cover-ups at tabloid
Ofcom to inquire Sky News over email hacking

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