Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007 and leader of Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. Special Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East at the time of giving evidence. He testified about the relationship between politicians and the media as well as giving accounts of the history between his cabinet and the press. He defended his relationship with Rupert Murdoch as a "working relationship", "about power" and not "personal", though it had by then emerged that he became godfather to Murdoch's daughter after he had left office. He stated: "I don't know a policy that we changed because of Rupert Murdoch."
Prime Minister of UK and Leader of Labour Party 2007 - 2010, prior to which he was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Blair Government from 1997 - 2007. Brown was a Member of Parliament from 1983 - 2015, first for Dunfermline East and later for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. Stood down as MP in 2015. Brown criticised the Sun for use of unauthorised information about his son's medical details and accused Rupert Murdoch of lying on oath. He criticised James Murdoch of "breathtaking arrogance" and claimed that the Conservative Party adopted all the policies put forward by the Murdoch company.
At the time of the Inquiry, Chair of the Association of Police Authorities and member and of West Yorkshire Police. Burns-Williamson was appointed OBE for services to Community and Policing in the 2012 Honours List.
British solicitor and Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament since 1982, first for Peckham, and then for successor constituency of Camberwell and Peckham from 1997. Harman was Shadow Deputy Leader at the time of the Inquiry. She had served in various Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet positions and, in her role as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party served twice as Acting Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. Her evidence covered consideration of regulation and the need for the Inquiry to address media ownership.
Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2015, holding major ministerial positions including (from 2001 to 2007) as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Designated a Core Participant Victim at the Inquiry, she gave extensive evidence, based on her experience both as Secretary of State responsible for media and as a victim of phone-hacking. In her evidence, she accused the press of "total invasion" of her privacy. Jowell accepted £200,000 in damages from the News of the World (£100,000 of which went to a charity), after the police informed her that her phone had been comprehensively hacked. Raised to the peerage in the 2015 Dissolution Honours, Baroness Jowell died from cancer in May 2018.
Peter Mandelson was Labour MP for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004. Held a number of Cabinet positions under Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and was European Commissioner for Trade from 2004 to 2008. He denied there had been a "Faustian pact" between Labour and Rupert Murdoch but was of the view that relations between both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown with News International were "closer than were wise".
Politician and Labour Party leader at the time of the Inquiry, Miliband gave evidence that he believed there should be a cap on media ownership and suggested it should be set lower than the proportion of the market currently then owned by the Murdoch empire. He said he had "no worries" about a company owning 20 per cent of the UK market but above that there was a question. Miliband was re-elected as MP for Doncaster North in 2010, 2015, and again in 2017.
John Prescott is a former Deputy Prime Minister (1997-2007) who represented Hull East as Labour MP from 1970 to 2010. Submitted "A New Regulatory Framework", a paper on the press drawn up by a Prescott-led working group, to the Inquiry.
A former Labour MP for Motherwell (1987-2010), John Reid held a number of Cabinet positions under Tony Blair including Health Secretary, Defence Secretary and Home Secretary. He retired from frontline politics in 2007 following Gordon Brown's appointment as Prime Minister. Gave evidence on the immediate aftermath of the arrests of Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, for which, he said, he received briefing papers only the day after.
A former MP, Cabinet Minister and chairman of the Environment Agency, Chris Smith was Culture Secretary from 1997 to 2001. He gave evidence of his hope for strengthened self-regulation and also on the change of public perception towards the media in the wake of the death of Princess Diana and his belief then in the need to consider specific action against the paparazzi.
Director of Public Prosecutions at the time of giving evidence. He answered questions on DPP investigations into phone hacking which had resulted in the trial and prison sentences of Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman. Starmer told the Inquiry that by 2011, after more press revelations from victims such as Sienna Miller and press stories about phone hacking (including in the New York Times) he knew there had to be a full review of all the material available. Starmer said that he had met with Assistant Commissioner John Yates to tell him that. Starmer became Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras in 2015 and was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. He was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 2014 and sworn in as a Privy Councillor on 19 July 2017.
English politician and MP for Blackburn from 1979 to 2015. Served in Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Home Secretary from 1997 to 2001 and Foreign Secretary from 2001 to 2006 under Blair. From 2007 to 2010 served as Lord Chancellor and as Secretary of State for Justice throughout Brown's Premiership. Gave extensive evidence on special advisers, political journalists and editors, as well as evidence on the ability of ordinary people to get justice and the relationship between senior police and senior journalists.
Born 1953. English Labour Party politician and former MP for The Wrekin between 1997–2005. He is a co-founder and director of the Speakers' Corner Trust, a registered charity promoting free expression, public debate and active citizenship as a means of revitalising civil society in the UK as well as in Berlin, Prague and Nigeria.
British Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament for Exeter since 1997 and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport from 2009 to 2010. Before entering politics he worked as a BBC Radio reporter and journalist. Bradshaw gave evidence as the recently departed Culture Secretary and argued that self-regulation required some statutory underpinning. He commended the submission of the Media Standards Trust.
Labour MP for Rhondda. Member of the Commons Media Select Committee, where he raised concerns about News International journalists making payments to police officers. Bryant told the Inquiry that, shortly after this, his phone was hacked by the News of the World and Bryant was reported by several papers to have used a gay dating site. In 2012, he received £30,000 damages from NI.
Political editor of the Telegraph at time of giving evidence. Was asked to describe the general "dynamic" of relations between journalists and politicians. Gave his view that self-regulation was the best form of regulation. In 2014, he became Deputy Director of Communications for the Labour Party, but left to join Sadiq Khan's campaign in the 2016 London mayoral election.
Clive Hollick, a former owner of Express Newspapers and a supporter of the Labour Party, was made a life peer in 1991. He told the Inquiry that he believed self-regulation of the Press should be abandoned. The historic pattern of promising and failing to reform had been repeated too often with sometimes tragic results, he said.
Born 1967. Welsh politician and First Minister of Wales at the time of the Inquiry, the third politician to lead the Welsh government. Told Inquiry he could think of no example in Wales where the media had had influence on public or political appointments.
British Labour Party politician who, as Member of Parliament for Leicester East since 1987, was at time of the Inquiry Parliament's longest-serving British Asian MP. He gave his opinion that broadcasting regulation worked well and could be a useful model for the press.
British Labour Party MP for Watford 1997-2010 and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice from 2009 to 2010. Ward told Inquiry that within weeks of becoming an MP she was subject to intense media intrusion and threats, including from the News of the World, purporting to have compromising photographs of her.
