mr. osborne. your full name. [inaudible] spent you provide us with two statements, the first the fourth of may, the second the 11th of may. is this your formal evidence for our inquiry? >> yes, it is. >> you of course are the chancellor of the exchequer and were shadow chancellor between 2005-2010, is that right? >> indeed. just one moment. thank you very much indeed for the obvious effort that you put into the statement. i do want to clarify one fact, or correct that misapprehension since the public domain. for some people, i have made it clear that they will have to give evidence. two others i want to wait to see what they say before deciding what they have to give evidence but it's quite wrong to suggest as i know has been suggested that you have been required to give evidence after the evidence of mr. hunt. the fact is, as you know, but i am very keen the public should understand, sometimes ago having senior statement, the view was taken that you ought to give evidence it arranges were made acc

mr. osborne texts, and it's pretty clear looking at it that this is mr.statement, which is recorded in the "financial times" interview. do you see that? >> yes. i do see that. but looking again at the time sheet of the day, i had a meeting 5:00 to 5:00 with the cabinet secretary. and i think it was at that point he said he thought this was a good solution, that he wanted to seek legal advice. i think he then did that and, of course, the announcement was then made at 1745, 5:45. my recollection is there was time to look at the legal advice. as i said, i think this is all slightly academic, as we now have a much fuller position of the government's legal advice. >> you look at mr. jenkins' advice, and he assists himself, because it was annual leave on the 21st of december that he it was 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. from a number of officials, including the guests. so the advice he was giving was said a little bit on holiday and in a rush. isn't that fair? >> well, i think he says, and he's now gotten this evidence from paul jenkins, and he says, my telephone recor

mr. osborne, that a number of names were considered. aside from the one broadcaster who is being mentioned can you remember approximately how many names were considered? >> there were two or three others. i don't want to hurt their careers by naming them. there were two or three other people we were looking at, and one or two that i had met with. but as i say we decided on andy coulson. >> of the two or three others, were it any -- [inaudible] >> yes. >> and mr. coulson, was he the only one from news international or not? >> know. i mean, this is difficult although there was there was someone from the tabloid newspaper i think i talked to earlier in the process but i can't remember exact date. but at the time at which made the andy coulson appointment, i think i'm right that he was the only tabloid editor available. >> now, the initial interviews if that's a correct description were carried out by others as we know, but how many did you see as part of this process? how many individual? >> how many people did i see? know dick or who -- h

mr. osborn. your full name? >> george gideon oliver osborn. >> each with their own set a true spirit is this reform of inquiry to power questioning? you are the chancellor of exchequer ever show chancellor between 2005 and 2010? >> indeed. >> first of all, thank you for your efforts you are putting into the statements. i want to clarify one fact, or correct the misapprehension in the public domain. for some people, i have made it clear that they will have to give evidence appeared to others, i wanted to wait and see what they said before deciding whether there would have to give evidence. is quite wrong to suggest, as i have now been suggesting, that you have been required to give evidence after the evidence of mr. hunt. the fact is, as you know, and i'm keeping the public should understand, some considerable time ago, having seen your statement, the view was taken that you ought to give evidence and are content to do so and arrange to do so accordingly. so i wanted to correct that. >> thank you. >> may we start

mr. osborne about these matters? >> obviously we discussed it on that vince cable's public, and so -- do as a government to deal with that. in terms of other discussions, i but we i would not be all surprised if we had not talked about it in passing. >> are you sure in your mind that the date of the formal announcement of the bid, which was june 15, 2010, was the first you heard of it? >> that is my recollection. as i say, i can see there was some press speculation in advance of this, but i don't recall any discussions about it or knowledge about it in advance. >> as for the culture secretary, this is paragraph 176 of your statement, you say you don't remember any specific conversations with him, but are we to understand by that that is possible that in general policy terms the merits of the bid might have been discussed with him? >> i don't recall discussing it with him, but he did send me some notes about it. but i don't recall specific conversations. >> the notes he referred to, there is one of the 18th of june at

mr. osborne, which is taking place in

mr. osborne about these matters?bviously, we discussed it on the day that vince cable's remarks were made public, and, um, so there was a discussion over the what we were going to do, um, as a government to deal with that. in terms of other discussions, i don't recall any, but, you know, we discussed lots of things, so i wouldn't be at all surprised if we hadn't talked about it in passing. >> are you sure in your mind that the date of the formal announcement of the bid which we know to be the 15th of june 2010, was the first you heard of it? >> that is my, um that's my recollection. as i say in my witness statement, i can see there's some press speculation in advance of this, but i don't recall any discussions about it or knowledge about it in advance. >> and as for the culture secretary, this is paragraph 1766j6j of your statement, you say you6j6j don't remember any specific conversations with him.6k6k but are we to understand by that6k6k it's possible that in general6k6k policy terms the merits of the bid might hav

mr. osborn's evidence was that he also obtained assurances. breyer aware of that? >> i do not -- were you aware of that? >> i do not recall. i suspect george did the same thing. osborn's advice in relation to this process? were you reliant on him? >> it was important. george and i worked for a -- very closely together. he thought this was a good idea. but this was my decision. i take full responsibility. i dont' try to shuffle it off on anybody else. >> in paragraph 237 of your statement, mr. cameron, you say that you are sure that -- his appointment with rebekah wade. would you have accounted -- counted her as a months your friends? -- as amongst your friends? >> yes, i think i would. i cannot recall when i disgusted with her. -- when i discussed it with her. would hvave had a conversation about it. >> can you remember how many conversations? >> no. >> more than one? >> i do not think so. we both met him before. we both formed the impression that he was effective. george met him after he had resigned as editor of "the news of the world." i made the decision to emp

mr. osborne, that a number of names were considered.others. i don't want to hurt their careers by naming them. there were two or three other people we were looking at, and one or two that i had met with. but as i say we decided on andy coulson. >> of the two or three others, were it any -- [inaudible] >> yes. >> and mr. coulson, was he the only one from news international or not? >> know. i mean, this is difficult although there was there was someone from the tabloid newspaper i think i talked to earlier in the process but i can't remember exact date. but at the time at which made the andy coulson appointment, i think i'm right that he was the only tabloid editor available. >> now, the initial interviews if that's a correct description were carried out by others as we know, but how many did you see as part of this process? how many individual? >> how many people did i see? know dick or who -- harry who's been out of, edited have conversations with them. there was someone senior from a newspaper. there was someone else very seen at bbc.

mr. brown after the break. later today, chancellor of the exchequer george osborn will answer questions, and we'll return to live coverage at the time. actually this afternoon we will hear from the chancellor of the exchequer george osborne himself and not from prime minister tbor done brown. -- gordon brown. a little later this week a number of political figures are expected at the table, including john major, labour party leader ed millibland and -- miliband and ed clegg. we'll have live coverage of that all this week here on c-span2. >>> as this break continues, opening remarks from earlier today with former prime minister gordon brown. >> may i call this morning's witness, the right honorable gordon brown, please? >> thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] >> i swear by almighty god that the evidence i shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. thank you. >> mr. brown, your full name, please. >> james gordon brown. >> you kindly provided us with a witness statement which is dated the 30th of may, 2012. it has the standard statement of truth, and you've signed it. is this

mr. brown will want to probe him on. >> and also, naomi, we are going to hear from george osborne. this is going to be interesting in terms of his links with the culture secretary here and the bskyb bid. quite a lot of detail, but george osborne is interesting. he's seen as someone who doesn't come out in public unless he really needs to. >> that's right. george osborne is not only chancellor, but also the government strategist. he does have a finger in many of the pies of government, and his name and text messages have arisen during this inquiry to do with that bskyb bid, which is now proving to be a very controversial area for this inquiry. original originally george osborne wasn't intending to give evidence to this inquiry, but precisely because his name keeps cropping up, they've actually decided to call him. so this afternoon, he, too, will be giving testimony as to what went on when the murdoch entire was trying to bid for the satellite broadcaster, bskyb. >> key figure in the government, of course. naomi, thanks very much. after more than two decades of lawlessness and turmo