David Cameron’s intimate dealings with Rebekah Brooks and the Murdoch empire were laid bare with a message from the former News International executive telling the Prime Minister: “We’re in this together.” The Leveson Inquiry revealed a text message from Mrs Brooks to the Prime Minister lavishing praise on him and his wife and looking forward to private discussions over a “country supper”. Mr Cameron was left visibly embarrassed by revelations about his relations with Mrs Brooks and the Murdoch family during a day-long appearance at the public inquiry into the press his Government set up. The Prime Minister also faced questions from Lord Justice Leveson over his decision to appoint Jeremy Hunt to oversee the Murdoch bid for BSkyB. The culture secretary’s previous support for the bid “does raise a question as to the desirability” of that appointment, the judge said. In a performance lacking his customary self-assurance, the Prime Minister frequently appeared uncomfortable, frequently telling the inquiry that he could not recall details of conversations or meetings. The most difficult moments in Mr Cameron’s five-hour evidence session concerned his regular contacts with Mrs Brooks, who resigned as News International’s chief executive last year and has since been charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. The inquiry has focussed on the degree to which politicians have favoured the interests of media owners like Rupert Murdoch in exchange for the support of their newspapers. Mr Cameron told the inquiry that he had tried to persuade Mr Murdoch and other owners to back him, but said it was “absolute nonsense from start to finish” to suggest that he had offered for that support.“There was no covert deal, there was no nods and winks, there was a Conservative politician, me, trying to win over newspapers, trying to win over television, trying to win over proprietors, but not trading policies for that support,” he said. Despite that assurance, the relationship Mr Cameron developed with the Murdochs and their senior staff came under intense scrutiny at the Royal Courts of Justice. Mrs Brooks sent the text message to Mr Cameron in October 2009, the night before his speech to the Conservative Party conference. Weeks earlier, News International’s Sun had switched its support from Labour to the Conservatives. . Mrs Brooks wrote: “I am so rooting for you tomorrow not just as a proud friend but because professionally we’re definitely in this together!” The text also thanked Mr Cameron and his wife for attending a News International party. “As always Sam was wonderful – (and I thought it was OE’s that were charm personified!),” Mrs Brooks wrote, a reference to Mr Cameron as an Old Etonian. Mr Cameron’s reply to the text has not been disclosed to the inquiry and No 10 sources said an initial search of records has failed to find any response. The inquiry has previously heard from Mrs Brooks that Mr Cameron would frequently send her texts ending “LOL”, which he meant to indicate “Lots of love.” Mrs Brooks is married to Charlie Brooks, a longstanding friend of Mr Cameron, and the couple have a house near the Prime Minister’s constituency home in Oxfordshire. The Prime Minister faltered over suggestions that in the run-up to the 2010 election, he had seen Mrs Brooks every weekend in Oxfordshire. He later consulted his wife’s diary and told the inquiry he had seen the former editor every six weeks or so. Written evidence submitted by the Prime Minister showed that in Opposition, he met Rupert Murdoch at least ten times and held a further 15 meetings with his son, James Murdoch. At one meeting, James Murdoch gave Mr Cameron advance notice that the Sun would declare its switch in allegiance during the Labour Party conference in 2009. Mr Cameron did he “did not recall” discussing broadcasting policy or the BBC with James Murdoch at that meeting, but said it was “unlikely”. Mr Cameron also told the inquiry he will forever be “haunted” by his decision in 2007 to hire Andy Coulson as his communications chief, months after Mr Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World over phone-hacking. Mr Coulson left No 10 last year and since been charged with perjury. The Prime Minister said that “with hindsight” he would not have hired him. Mr Cameron admitted discussing Mr Coulson’s appointment with Mrs Brooks before offering him the job. He said he could not recall the details, but insisted there was no question he had hired Mr Coulson simply to curry favour with News International.

 

Brooks Told Cameron: We're In This Together

DAVID CAMERON is facing the fall-out from his controversial decision to publicly criticise comedian Jimmy Carr as "morally wrong" for using a legal tax avoidance scheme.

The Observer reports that one of the party's top donors was co-director of a tax avoidance scheme with Carr. "The Prime Minister made a mistake," says an "influential accountant" quoted in The Sunday Telegraph meanwhile, which reports criticism of the PM for singling Carr out in a prominent article.

Observer journalists have been busy combing the financial records at Companies House for a story which, the paper says, "is intensely embarrassing for David Cameron".

George Robinson – not to be confused with Labour's embarrassing 1990s paymaster-general Geoffrey Robinson – is one of the Conservatives' biggest donors, a hedge-fund manager who has given the party more than £250,000.

According to the Observer, he and Carr were among the 500 co-directors of a tax avoidance scheme – not the K2 scheme which prompted Carr to make a fulsome public apology, but a different scheme called 'Rushmore'.

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/tax-avoidance/47597/backlash-over-pms-mistake-carr-tax-story-spirals#ixzz1ym1KQSaO