A Shadow Cabinet split has opened up over whether John Whittingdale should step aside from making decisions about press regulation. Labour decided this morning that it was going to attack the Culture Secretary for the revelations about his private life, arguing that they meant he could not take decisions about press regulation. Maria Eagle issued a statement saying ‘in order for the public to have any confidence in the government’s approach to press regulation and to allay any concerns about perceptions of any undue influence, the secretary of state must now recuse himself from any decision making over this matter, just as Vince Cable was removed from deciding media policy in the last Parliament’.
But on the Daily Politics, Hilary Benn said he wanted Whittingdale ‘to get on with implementing those two further changes’, which were Leveson part II, and the access to justice in press regulation. Asked about it after PMQs, Corbyn’s spokesperson said that the party’s official stance was the one articulated by Maria Eagle about Whittingdale recusing himself. So it doesn’t want him to get on with the job: it wants someone else to get on with the job instead of him.
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