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| Politics live blog: Monday 14 May | Politics live blog: Monday 14 May |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| 9.35am: Les Hinton (pictured), the former News International boss who was accused by the Commons culture committee of misleading parliament about phone hacking, has hit back. Hinton disputed the committee's findings when its report was published earlier this month but he has now sent a more detailed response to the committee's chairman, John Whittingdale. Here's an extract from the story filed by the Press Association. | |
| [Hinton] says of the committee's findings: "They are based on a misreading of evidence, and on a selective and misleading analysis of my testimonies to your committee." He goes on to the claim that the report's conclusions "rest on a highly selective reading of the record, and unsupportable leaps in logic and inference". And he insists "there is nothing credible ... to suggest that I was anything but candid with the committee". The report concluded that Rupert Murdoch's News International had misled the hacking inquiry in a "blatant fashion". Opposition MPs on the committee also branded Murdoch as unfit to be in charge of a major media firm, although Tory members refused to support this ... In the robust rebuttal letter, Hinton questions the impartiality of the committee, which was deeply divided over elements of the report, and claims that "matters have gone seriously awry". "It is hard to avoid the view that the committee has sometimes allowed preconceived judgments to cloud its objectivity and sense of fairness." The committee accused Hinton of selective amnesia after he replied he could not remember 72 times during questioning. But he insisted that number had been inflated by grouping together answers to the same or similar questions ... Hinton added: "I have apologised publicly for the misconduct at the News of the World when I was executive chairman of News International. As a consequence, I resigned from News Corporation last year after a career that began 52 years before. "My criticism of the report should in no way be taken as an effort to minimise the harm that has occurred as a result of the events at News of the World. "But if this committee is going to accuse me of misleading parliament or being complicit in a cover-up, it should get its facts right and conduct a fair process. The committee has done neither." | |
| 9.03am: Nick Clegg has done a round of interviews this morning to publicise his pupil premium initiative. PoliticsHome have been monitoring them all. | |
| Here are the key points. | |
| • Clegg said the pupil premium would help all pupils, not just the ones from poor families who are intended to be the main beneficiaries. | |
| I do want to stress is that focusing as much attention and money as we are on the children from the most disadvantaged backgrounds doesn't just help them. It helps all children from all backgrounds, because we know that the most successful schools are where classrooms and classes can move together as one, where you don't have a small number of children at the back messing around or completely switched off, which then holds everybody else back. | |
• He said the pupil premium was better than some Labour initiatives because it was not ring-fenced. | |
| In the past, when these announcements were made, new pots of money were allocated by governments to schools and teachers, it would come with endless strings attached and a great, big instruction manual telling teachers what to do with the money. What we're saying is: "Here's the money, it's an unprecedented amount - £2.5bn by the end of this parliament - you are free to do with it what you will as along as you work hard to close that gap between children from different backgrounds." | |
• He said the way schools were funded needed to be reformed. | |
| The way in which school funding is very idiosyncratic. It's built up layer upon layer over years and we are moving towards making announcements on a more rational division of the pot. It's a very controversial thing to do because, just as much as there might be winner in Dorset, there might be losers in East London, so it's a very controversial thing to do. It's not something we're going to rush into. | |
| • He said he supported Iain Duncan's Smith's plans to cut the number of receiving disability living allowance. Duncan Smith has talks about this in an interview in the Daily Telegraph today. Clegg said: "I support reform because many people have received DLA, as it's known, without any personal, face-to-face tests for year upon year upon year without any assessment about whether their circumstances have changed." | |
| 8.54am: Peter Hain, the shadow Welsh secretary, has announced that he is leaving the shadow cabinet. There's expected to be a limited shadow cabinet reshuffle soon. | 8.54am: Peter Hain, the shadow Welsh secretary, has announced that he is leaving the shadow cabinet. There's expected to be a limited shadow cabinet reshuffle soon. |
| As Hain told BBC Wales this morning, he is leaving partly so that he can concentrate on campaigning for a Severn Barrage. | As Hain told BBC Wales this morning, he is leaving partly so that he can concentrate on campaigning for a Severn Barrage. |
| 8.50am: It's quite a busy day at Westminster, but nothing is probably quite as important as the crisis in the Eurozone, which is back at the top of the headlines again today. Greece's departure from the euro looks increasingly likely and, in early trading this morning, the FTSE 100 fell 70 points. My colleague Graeme Wearden has all the details in his Eurozone debt crisis live blog. Nick Clegg has been giving interviews this morning in advance of a speech on the pupil premium and he has reiterated the government's determination not to contribute to a Eurozone bailout. | 8.50am: It's quite a busy day at Westminster, but nothing is probably quite as important as the crisis in the Eurozone, which is back at the top of the headlines again today. Greece's departure from the euro looks increasingly likely and, in early trading this morning, the FTSE 100 fell 70 points. My colleague Graeme Wearden has all the details in his Eurozone debt crisis live blog. Nick Clegg has been giving interviews this morning in advance of a speech on the pupil premium and he has reiterated the government's determination not to contribute to a Eurozone bailout. |
| Here's the full agenda for the day. | Here's the full agenda for the day. |
| 10am: Nick Clegg delivers a speech on the pupil premium. As Rajeev Syal reports, he will announce that prizes will be awarded to schools that come up with the best ways of spending the pupil premium. 10am: The People's Pledge, the group campaigning for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, announces the constitutuencies where it is going to ballot voters on whether they want an EU referendum. | 10am: Nick Clegg delivers a speech on the pupil premium. As Rajeev Syal reports, he will announce that prizes will be awarded to schools that come up with the best ways of spending the pupil premium. 10am: The People's Pledge, the group campaigning for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, announces the constitutuencies where it is going to ballot voters on whether they want an EU referendum. |
| 10am: Alastair Campbell and Lord O'Donnell, the former cabinet secretary, are giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry. | 10am: Alastair Campbell and Lord O'Donnell, the former cabinet secretary, are giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry. |
| 10am: Ed Vaizey, the cuture minister, publishes the government's response to Lord Smith's film review. | 10am: Ed Vaizey, the cuture minister, publishes the government's response to Lord Smith's film review. |
| 2.30pm: Philip Hammond, the defene secretary, makes a statement in the Commons about the Ministry of Defence budget. He is expected to say that the MoD has balanced its budget for the first time in about a decade. | 2.30pm: Philip Hammond, the defene secretary, makes a statement in the Commons about the Ministry of Defence budget. He is expected to say that the MoD has balanced its budget for the first time in about a decade. |
| 3.15pm: Dame Helen Ghosh, permanent secretary at Home Office, Lin Homer, the HM Revenue & Customs chief executive and Robert Whiteman, chief executive of the Border Agency, give evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about student immigration. | 3.15pm: Dame Helen Ghosh, permanent secretary at Home Office, Lin Homer, the HM Revenue & Customs chief executive and Robert Whiteman, chief executive of the Border Agency, give evidence to the Commons public accounts committee about student immigration. |
| At some point today David Cameron has also got a meeting with business leaders. Given that William Hague and other ministers have been telling business leaders to stop complaining about the economy and to just work harder, it could be an edgy encounter. | At some point today David Cameron has also got a meeting with business leaders. Given that William Hague and other ministers have been telling business leaders to stop complaining about the economy and to just work harder, it could be an edgy encounter. |
| As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and another at about 4pm. | As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking political news, as well as looking at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web. I'll post a lunchtime summary at around 1pm and another at about 4pm. |
| If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm on @AndrewSparrow. | If you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm on @AndrewSparrow. |
| And if you're a hardcore fan, you can follow @gdnpoliticslive. It's an automated feed that tweets the start of every new post that I put on the blog. | And if you're a hardcore fan, you can follow @gdnpoliticslive. It's an automated feed that tweets the start of every new post that I put on the blog. |