mr. ed miliband. >> mr. speaker, i don't know from that answer whether he says to the chief executive news international should stand down or not. i am clear she should take responsibility and stand down. and mr. speaker, these events show a systemic set of abuses which demonstrate the use of power without responsibility in our country. it is in the interest of our democracy and the public that these issues are sorted out. with the biggest press scandals in modern times getting worse of the day, i'm afraid he hasn't shown the leadership necessary today. he hasn't shown the leadership necessary on bskyb. he hasn't shown the leadership necessary on news international. and isn't it the case, if the public is to have confidence in him, he's got to calm the thing that is most difficult. he's got to accept he made a catastrophic error of judgment by bringing andy callson into the heart of his downing street machine. >> what -- what -- >> order! order! i apologize for interrupting the prime minister. order! the pri

mr. ed miliband. >> mr. speaker, the whole country would have heard they are spending 852 million pounds and he can't even promise they will be rehired to do their old job. he's promised no top to reorganization. he promised the bonfire. use greg moore. he promised a better deal for patients and things are getting worse. people asking up and down this country is was he doing for our nhs. [shouting] >> with the whole country would have noticed is that at a time when people are worried about strike, he can ask about strike because he's in the pocket of the union. [shouting] what the whole country, what the whole country would have noticed is at a time when greece is making huge problems over its deficit he can't talk about greece because his plan is to make britain like greece. [shouting] what the whole country would have noticed is at a time when the economy is the key issue he can't talk about the economy because of his ludicrous plan for tax cuts. that's what we see. week after week. he has to talk about th

mr. ed miliband. >> mr. speaker, the prime minister has just made a very important admission. he has admitted that his chief of staff was given information before the general election that andy coulson had hired a man -- had hired a man jailed for seven years for a criminal conspiracy who made payments to the police on behalf of "the news of the world." this evidence casts serious doubt on mr. coulson's assurances that the phone hacking over which he resigned was an isolated example of illegal activity. do you know what, mr. speaker? i think the public and the victims of this appalling scandal want us to rise above this and deal with the problems that this country faces. >> mr. miliband? >> mr. speaker, he just doesn't get it. he just doesn't get it. >> i'm afraid, mr. speaker, the person who is not getting it is now the leader of the opposition. >>> as we mentioned, this unfolding firestorm brought to light by hollywood actor hugh grant, who secretly taped a former "news of the world" reporter talking about the unsa unsavoury practices that he says that everyone is engaged in

mr. miliband. >> with all the problems and the difficulties and the mess they are in, i think they should be focused on clearing those up rather than on the next corporate move. >> earlier in the day, the deputy prime minister met the family of a murdered schoolgirl. it was the exposure of the news that the family of the girl had been hacked to that did so much damage to the preppies at reduced to the reputation of report merkt -- did so much damage to the reputation of rupert murdoch's company. >> now along with the late in the bid is perhaps the most pecan hope for. -- the most he can hope for. >> barack obama has urged compromise to avoid tipping in the united states into another recession. republicans are pushing for spending cuts. the treasury is warning it will run out of money to cover the country's bills if congress does not increase its borrowing authority. stock markets across europe have fallen heavily as investors remain concerned that the eurozone debt crisis could spread. finance ministers have been meeting in brussels to discuss the second bailout for greece. u.s. stocks ha

mr. miliband. >> if i was running that company now with all of its problems and the difficulties and the mess that they are in, there's a focus on cleaning that up rather than the next course of moves. >> the deputy prime minister met the family of the murdered school girl buried it was a disclosure that the phone was hacked that did so much damage to the reputation of mr. murdoch's company. >> was thinking about picking up the voicemails. >> it reminded that all week has been an eternity in business and why a long delay in the bskyb bid is the best that he can hope for. >> in egypt, a terminal which supplies gas to israel and jordan has been blown up in the fourth attack on the pipeline this year. it caused a huge fire which could be seen up to 20 kilometers away. security officials say that the attack was carried out by masked gunmen. barack obama has asked republican officials to compromise in order to keep the united states from tipping into another recession. they're trying to reach a deal on bringing down a level of u.s. debt. the republicans are pushing for spending cuts. the trea

mr. miliband thrust for thrust. he survived the day. parliament went into recess.y have caught a kind of wave here in britain that this thing has kind of overwhelmed the country. overwhelmed the political agenda. and it's time to get back to particularly to the economic problems confronting britain and the rest of europe which you know are severe. >> and the leader is challenged in something like this. whether you think it's over the top, i think there's a lot of volume. probably a lot of hyperbole. the question is how does he perform when tested? how did he do? >> i think he did well. this is the most difficult day for him. he came under heavy fire in the most important debate so far of his time as leader of the country. but i think overall cameron put forward a very convincing performance. and i think he has weathered the storm temporarily. certainly this is a very big scandal. it's hit the very heart of the british political establishment. i don't think it's big enough to bring the prime minister down. i think he has survived. there will be more and more questio

mr. ed miliband? >> mr. just doesn't get it. [ cheers ] >> he just doesn't get it. >> i'm afraid, mr. speaker, the person who is not getting it is now the leader of the opposition. >> this unfolding firestorm was brought to light recently by hollywood actor hugh grant who secretly taped a former news of the world reporter talking about the unsavory practices he says everyone in his organization condoned and encouraged. here's hugh grant in an awkward picture with the reporter paul mcmullen. i spoke with mcmullen about who knew what. >> were people as high as rupert murdoch complicit in this? would murdoch know about these practices? people under him? >> well, people under him certainly should have done. when rebecca brooks, his right-hand woman in britain was doing my job i was looking at the same books. we were sending 4,000 pounds a week on private investigators doing these kind of practices. just extraordinary if she was the department boss who then moved up to be editor. how could you not notice expendin

mr. miliband. >> the prime minister, mr. speaker, was caught in a tragic conflict of loyalty that people should expect and his personal allegiance. he made the wrong choice. he chose to stick with mr. coulson. my second question is can he now explain -- can now explain why he failed to act on clear information about what those around him dribble of silence from the prime minister? the prime minister's conflict of interest had really facts. the metropolitan police commissioner resigned on sunday. the prime minister did not talk about the reasons for his resignation, but the house must. he was trapped. between our own secretary angry and not being told of the hiring of mr. coulson's deputy, mr. wallis. it would never compromised him because of mr. coulson. why did he think that? his own deputy, john yates, had been told by the chief of staff that the prime minister should be told nothing. mr. speaker, this catastrophic error of judgment, hiring him, hanging on to him too long directly contributed the to the position the proble

miliband. >> here, here. >> mr. speaker, can i join in paying tribute of highlander battalion in scotland. he served our country and died in the most horrific circumstances and i'm sure the thoughts of the whole house are with his family and friends. >> here, here. >> mr. speaker, the whole country has been appalled by the disclosures, the 7/7 victims the parents of holly wells and jessica chapman and, of course, there is a major police investigation on the way. there is one currently under way in our country. this clearly did not get to the truth. it is important that we had inquiries that are public and independent. this is the behavior of individual people. clearly, we cannot start all those. it may be possible to start it earlier. i will be happy to discuss. we will make sure we get this right. it is possible. they can start the process now. they should immediately appoint a senior leader. next year, they will have power to call witnesses on those. they are covering a number of key issues. there is the nature of regulation that is crucial. it is the relationship between the media and t

miliband. >> we now come to that debate in the name of the leader of the opposition. we call mr. ed miliband. the leader of the scottish national party, and the hon. member for brighton pavilion. i thank them all for joining it -- with the tabling motion before us today. i also thank the members from the conservative benches who set out their support for the motion. mr. speaker, is unusual for a motion in this house to succeed before the debate on it begins, but this is no ordinary motion, and this is no ordinary day. make no mistake, the decision made by news corp. was not the decision that wanted to make. it may have been announced before this debate, but it would not have happened without it. above all, this is a victory for people, the good, decent people of britain, outraged by the betrayal of trust by parts of our newspaper industry, who have spoken out up and down this country, who have contacted members across this house and told us of their concerns. the will of parliament was clear. the will of the public was clear. and now, britain's most powerful media owner has had to

mr. ed miliband. >> mr. speaker, i welcome this debate and i think in starting this debate all of us should remember what brings us here. because parliament would not have been recalled today if it had not been for the revelations by the hacking of millie doweler's phone. that revelation shocked our country and turned something that had seemed to be about the lives of politicians, footballers and celebrities into something very different. about the lives of others who never sought the public eye. and it is the courage of bob and sally doweler and milly's sister jemma that has been the spur for much that has happened in the last fortnight and i pay tribute for them in their courage in speaking out on these issues. mr. speaker people's anger about what has happened in phone hacking has been real. but some people will no doubt ask and indeed we heard it a bit in the statement today why when we have so many other problems facing the country, the economy, the nhs, defense all of those issues the house of commons

miliband. >> here, here. >> mr. speaker, can i join in paying tribute of highlander battalion in scotland. he served our country and died in the most horrific circumstances and i'm sure the thoughts of the whole house are with his family and friends. >> here, here. >> mr. speaker, the whole country has been appalled by the disclosures, the 7 victims the parents of holly wells and jessica chapman and, of course, it does not involve police officers who were involved in the original investigation. that clearly did not get to the truth. but i do think that we have inquiries that are public and independent and have public confidence. there are two vital issues that we need to look into. the first is the original police inquiry and why that did not get to the bottom, and the second is about the behavior of individual people and individual media organizations, and has the right hon. john allman says, a book into this country. it may be possible to start some of the work earlier. i'm willing to work to make sure we get this right. >> let me thank the prime minister that i am encouraged that the pr

mr. ed miliband. >> mr.peaker, i don't know from that answer whether he says to the chief executive news international should stand down or not. i am clear she should take responsibility and stand down. and mr. speaker, these events show a systemic set of abuses which demonstrate the use of power without responsibility in our country. it is in the interest of our democracy and the public that these issues are sorted out. with the biggest press scandals in modern times getting worse of the day, i'm afraid he hasn't shown the leadership necessary today. he hasn't shown the leadership necessary on bskyb. he hasn't shown the leadership necessary on news international. and isn't it the case, if the public is to have confidence in him, he's got to calm the thing that is most difficult. he's got to accept he made a catastrophic error of judgment by bringing andy callson into the heart of his downing street machine. >> what -- what -- >> order! order! i apologize for interrupting the prime minister. order! the prime

mr. cameron's willingness to be straight with the people of this country about the appointment. ed miliband, u.s. the people have been misled about what mr. cameron new, referring -- knew, referring to a statement. are you accusing the prime minister of lying about what he was told? secondly, before this whole row, what assurances did labor give news international about not raising bskyb's bid? >> let me deal with both of those questions. on the first question, i am saying that the prime minister has a series of unanswered questions on this issue. the most important of those is the question about the specific information that was passed him by the guardian newspaper. we do not yet know the chain of events but we do know there was an admission that mr. hint -- hilton talked to the guardian about allegations, that he was a convicted criminal. there was evidence he was paying the police on behalf of news organizations. he was on trial for a further offense. i also understand that mr. hilton pass that to mr. llewellyn. these rate serious allegations. there was evidence being presented by the gu

miliband who wanted to grill. but the team past the issue to jeremy hunt. >> mr. secretary hud. >> now hunt may have to cope with the dramatic news from the murdoch's. >> i understand in the last few minutes news corporation have withdrawn their undertakings in news. >> on january 25, on january 25 i said i was minded to refer news corporation's proposed merger with bskyb to the competition commission. in the absence of any specific undertaking. as a result of news corporation's announcement this afternoon, i am not going to refer this to the competition commission -- [shouting] will be rightly for them to pass. >> why wasn't cameron there to answer questions himself? labor wanted to know. >> mr. speaker, the prime minister was wrong not to come to the house of commons today. as on every occasion during this crisis, he has failed to show the necessary leadership the country has faced. he saw no need for additional and cori. he saw no need to change course on track and he is failed to come clean on andy carson. this is, prime minister, running scared. >> some think

mr. coulson lied to him. it is about all the information and warnings that the prime minister ignored. he was warned. and he preferred to ignore the warnings. >> reporter: ed milibandite go as far as calling on the prime minister to resign, but he did call on him to say sorry. david cameron, on the other hand, said he had nothing to apologize for. he wanted to give andy coulson a second chance. he believed him when he said he knew nothing about phone hacking. now we know that, well, we don't know for sure what andy coulson knew. he's been arrested. it's all rather embarrassing. the prime minister still sticking to this line, look, he's not been tried and judged yet. let's wait and see what the police find out. >> it is incredible, dan, to watch this all unfold between the hearings yesterday and everything that's happened and all those that have resigned and been arrested. what does parliament say about how all this has been handled so far? >> reporter: well, there has been withering criticism from all parties about how the police have handled this. don't forget that they looked into this initially back in 2006, '07, looking first of all into the hacking of members

miliband speaking in london was determined to pursue the comparison. >> paul stephenson taken responsibility and resigned over the hiring of mr. coulson's deputy.when the prime minister hasn't even apologized for the hiring of mr. coulson. we need representative to get to the truth of what happened but the prime minister is hamstrungpy the decisions he made and his refusal to face up to them. >> this afternoon boris johnson said paul stephenson's resignation was the right call but the mayor of london wasn't that helpful to his friend david cameron. >> mr. john son, michael crick, bbc "newsnight". if it was as you say the right call for paul stephenson to resign over the employment of a pr man who had been arrested in the phone-hacking scandal, shouldn't david cameron resign over the employment of a pr man who has been employed in the phone-hacking scandal? >> i'm not here to discuss government appointments. i'm here to talk about events in the metropolitan police service. those questions you must direct to government. i don't think there is recross in this matter actually because after all i'm not aware that number 10 downing street was actuall