Michael Dugher MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, commenting on John Whittingdale’s speech to the Society of Editors on the Leveson Inquiry recommendations, said:

“It seems the Culture Secretary is paving the way for the Government to renege on the implementation of a key recommendation from the Leveson Inquiry to make it easier for people to bring libel and privacy cases against newspapers.

“Labour is clear that this recommendation should be implemented.  The Government made a promise to Parliament, the public and most importantly to the victims of phone hacking in a cross-party agreement back in 2013.

“There must be no backtracking, no watering down and no broken promises from Ministers. And there can be no going back to the bad old days for newspapers.”