Born 1943. Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills (May 2010-May 2015), elected leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2017. Cable gave evidence to the Inquiry on representations made to him about the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corporation from a variety of organisations, MPs and constituents. Cable told the Inquiry he decided that the acquisition raised concerns of public interest and should not proceed. His decision made him the subject of multiple attacks in some national newspapers.
Deputy Prime Minister at the time of the Inquiry and until 2015. Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2007 to 2015. Member of Parliament for Sheffield Hallam from 2005 to 2017. Appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2018 New Year Honours for Political and Public Service. Told the Inquiry he believed a strong, free press was the lifeblood of a democracy but that revelations about News of the World phone-hacking had led to widespread revulsion. He gave evidence on the importance of the press in holding politicians to account and raising issues that politicians would rather not see aired.
Conservative MP for Surrey Heath and Education Secretary at the time of the Inquiry. A former journalist at the Aberdeen Press and Journal, the Times, the BBC and the Spectator. Told the Inquiry that sometimes "individuals reach for regulation in order to deal with failures of character or morality, and sometimes that regulation is right and appropriate but some of us believe that before the case for regulation is made, the case for liberty needs to be asserted as well".
Hughes was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2014, and from 2013 until 2015 was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice. In 2012, he gave lengthy evidence to the Inquiry about the extent of hacking of his private phone from 2002 to 2006, when details of his private relationships had been made public and The Sun had reported that Hughes had made telephone calls to a gay chat service. He learnt of the full extent of the hacking only after Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman were convicted of illegally intercepting voicemails on behalf of the News of the World in 2007. Hughes discovered that Mulcaire had collected extensive information about his contacts, private hotline and phone calls. Hughes told the Inquiry that he had seen the emergence of an increasingly unhealthy relationship between politicians and the Murdoch newspapers.
British Liberal Democrat politician and solicitor. Member of Parliament for North Norfolk since 2001 and chair of the Science and Technology Select Committee since 2017. Gave evidence that he had met News Corporation executive Fred Michel on two occasions and that the proposed takeover of BskyB had been raised. Lamb told the Inquiry that Michel suggested it would be a "pity" if the "fair" coverage given by News Corporation papers to the Lib Dems could not be continued. Lamb reported the conversation to the party leader.
British politician and retired police officer, currently sitting in the House of Lords as a life peer. Until his retirement in May 2007, Paddick was Deputy Assistant Commissioner in London's Metropolitan Police Service. He gave evidence to the Inquiry of a Metropolitan Police cover-up of systemic phone hacking by sections of the tabloid press. Paddick was a Liberal Democrat candidate for the London mayoral elections of 2008 and 2012.
