Miliband Renews Call For Hunt To Quit

Labour leader Ed Miliband has renewed his call for the Culture Secretary to resign in the wake of new evidence now before the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.

An email shown to the inquiry has given rise to fresh claims that Jeremy Hunt colluded with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to prevent a public inquiry into phone hacking.

Mr Hunt has insisted he acted with integrity throughout, and he will vindicate himself with his own evidence to Lord Justice Leveson.

Nonetheless, Mr Miliband said: "One of the reasons so many people hate politics so much right now is that they think politicians stand up for the wrong people, not the right people.

"This is a clear example of that - Jeremy Hunt was standing up for Rupert Murdoch, not for the public interest.

"Out of touch with the many. Too close to the few. Jeremy Hunt should go."

In a speech to Labour activists in central London, he linked the Government's response to the Murdoch bid to takeover BSkyB with allegations of cash for access, the cut in the top rate of tax, and the fact that Britain is now in a double-dip recession.

The past two months have been a "case study" in how to estrange the electorate, he claimed.

Nonetheless, Mr Miliband admitted that Labour too, in office, had been too slow to take on powerful vested interests like banks, utility companies and media giants.

"Let's be frank about this, the British public lost faith in who we stood for. We became 'one of them' rather than 'one of us', and we must put that right," he said.

But he insisted his party had learned its lesson, and called on activists to try harder to engage with the public, and wherever possible persuade unregistered voters to join the electoral register.

Determined to capitalise on Labour's big local council gains and opinion poll lead, Mr Miliband said the party was not just a government and establishment in waiting, but a party determined to engage with the community.

Though the message was well received in the hall, it is not an unfamiliar refrain from opposition leaders. And a tune that often changes when elections are safely won.