Coulson had £40,000 in News Corp
DAVID Cameron’s former press secretary yesterday said that he held £40,000 of News Corporation shares while working at Downing Street.
Andy Coulson, the ex-editor of the News of the World, also told the Leveson Inquiry that he attended meetings of the national security council and may have had access to top secret documents, even though he was not subjected to a full security check.
The government says Coulson only saw the information he was cleared to see.
Rejecting accusations that there was a “grand conspiracy” between leading media tycoons and politicians, Coulson said there was “never any inappropriate deal between the papers and the party”.
Referring to Cameron’s relationship with the media, he added: “I never saw a conversation that to my mind was inappropriate in that way.”
Lord Leveson announced yesterday he would not rule on culture secretary Jeremy Hunt’s involvement in the BSkyB takeover deal: “That is simply not my job and I have no intention of going outside the terms of reference that have been set for me.”
He also said that he would not pass judgement on Rupert Murdoch’s suitability to run a company.