Ministerial Code (Culture Secretary)

Part of Opposition Day — [1st Allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 1:35 pm on 13 June 2012.

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Photo of Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Hunt The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 1:35, 13 June 2012

At the heart of this debate are two allegations about the ministerial code, so let me address them straight away—first, the disgraceful allegation that I deliberately misled Parliament—[Interruption.] Do Opposition Members want to hear what I have to say about it, since they called the debate?

In response to a question on 3 March 2011 I stated that I had published correspondence between myself and News Corp. In answers to those questions I referred back to that statement, and if there was any misunderstanding about the extent to which I was publishing correspondence, it was addressed as long ago as last September in a written parliamentary answer to John Mann. That spelled out precisely what information I was releasing and what information I was not releasing.

I know that Ms Harman has found it difficult to read the volume of correspondence that I published. The content of the correspondence is what is important. If she read it, she would see that I have taken more trouble and published more information than probably any other Government have published in any previous bid. I made huge efforts to be transparent and she knows it perfectly well.