Tory peer's anti-Labour tweets have 'cast a stain' on Ofcom, says Harriet Harman

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/30/tory-peer-lady-noakes-ofcom-harriet-harman

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Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman has renewed her attack on Ofcom deputy chair Lady Noakes, saying the Tory peer had “cast a stain” on the media regulator with party-political tweets attacking Ed Miliband and the Labour party.

Harman said Noakes, appointed by culture secretary Sajid Javid last summer, had shown herself “not to be someone of robust, sound judgement”.

“If she stays the integrity of Ofcom is undermined,” Harman told the Guardian.

“It reflects badly on the secretary of state’s judgement and it is very serious for Ofcom. They have appointed the wrong person.”

Harman, who is also the shadow culture secretary, wrote to Javid earlier this week highlighting a series of tweets by Noakes, in which she criticised Labour and its leader.

Harman said they were “clear breaches” of the regulator’s need for impartiality.

Ofcom chair Patricia Hodgson responded with a letter to Javid in which she said Noakes acknowledged the tweets were inappropriate and would no longer be making “public comments of a political nature”.

Hodgson also said Noakes would sell her shares in US telecoms company Verizon – another issue highlighted by Harman.

But Harman, who previously described Noakes as a Tory “stooge”, said the response did not go far enough and described it as a “fudge”.

“Everybody thought Ofcom was impartial but what Javid has done by appointing Baroness Noakes has cast a stain on it,” said Harman.

“I feel really troubled by it. They have appointed someone who doesn’t know what the job is. Confidence in the organisation has been undermined and it will not be sold by divesting shares, leaving the Tory whip and deleting a Twitter account.

“She is the same person who had the judgement that it was perfectly all right to do all that until she was caught out.”

Noakes’ tweets remained undeleted on Friday afternoon.

Harman said she should be “leading Ofcom’s standards on impartiality, not having to be forced to abide by them. It is the wrong way round”.

The controversy comes as Ofcom awaits the arrival in March of its new chief executive, former senior Treasury official Sharon White, following the departure of previous incumbent Ed Richards at the end of last year.

It is currently being overseen by Steve Unger, the regulator’s strategy director, in an acting chief executive role.

Harman said Richards had navigated numerous difficult issues “without anyone impugning its impartiality”. But she said it would have an “achilles heel” the next time it became involved in any sort of political controversy.

Ofcom declined to comment further. The DCMS has not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.