Miliband ‘to force vote on BSkyB’
The staff of the News of The World leave the building on the eve of the final edition
Labour leader Ed Miliband says he will force a Commons vote to delay News Corporation’s proposed takeover of BSkyB, until the investigation into the News of the World is completed.
The last edition of the newpaper has been published, with a full-page apology for hacking mobile phones.
News Corporation owner Rupert Murdoch is due in London to take charge of the handling of the scandal.
Mr Miliband urged him to take action and sack executive Rebekah Brooks.
Mrs Brooks – a former News of the World editor and now chief executive of News International – has been under pressure over staying in her role while journalists on the paper have lost their jobs.
Mr Miliband denied he had “declared war on Rupert Murdoch” but also called on him to abandon the BSkyB bid.
In its final editorial the paper says: “Quite simply, we lost our way”.
Publisher News International axed the 168-year-old tabloid in the wake of phone-hacking allegations last week.
Campaigners, including actor Hugh Grant, have claimed the closure of the paper was a cynical move designed to protect the BSkyB takeover.
“Thank you & goodbye,” proclaims the final front page, over a spread of memorable scoops exposing the frailties of sports and TV stars, politicians and royalty – the familiar formula that still attracted seven-and-a-half million readers.
This week it could be more. The paper has doubled its print run, calculating that more people will want to mark a moment in history than protest at the alleged phone-hacking of Milly Dowler and victims’ relatives, which brought the paper’s downfall.
This time last week, no-one could have foreseen that Britain’s biggest-selling paper would today be published for the last time.
For Rupert Murdoch, it’s a bitter blow, closing the newspaper which – when he bought it 42 years ago – laid the foundations of his media empire, and now threatens to do it serious damage.
Mr Miliband said the takeover should be referred to the Competition Commission rather than “relying on assurances from News International”.
He said: “After this week I don’t think the public will accept the waving through of this bid on the basis of assurances from News International executives”.
Meanwhile Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner John Yates has expressed “extreme regret” for not reopening the phone hacking investigation two years ago.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he said he regretted the way he had handled it after reviewing the initial police investigation which led to the conviction of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in 2007.
Mr Yates said he did not re-examine the 11,000 pages of material recovered from Mulcaire’s home but spent eight hours considering the matter, and consulted the Crown Prosecution Service, but decided there was no likelihood of further convictions.
Yates ‘will not resign’
He said the decision now seemed a “pretty crap one”.
Mr Yates admitted the Metropolitan Police’s reputation had been tarnished by the scandal but said he had no intention of resigning.
During a short speech to more than 200 staff outside the paper’s offices in Wapping, east London, late on Saturday night editor Colin Myler held up the 8,674th and final edition of the Sunday newspaper, saying: “This is not where we want to be and not where we deserve to be.”
“As a final tribute to seven-and-a-half million readers, this is for you – and for the staff, thank you.”
“Now, in the best traditions of Fleet Street, we are going to the pub,” he added.
The NoW has doubled Sunday’s print run to five million, with money from the sales being donated to four charities.
‘Fell shamefully short’
In a full-page editorial on page three, the paper offers an apology for the hacking of phones.
“We praised high standards, we demanded high standards but, as we are now only too painfully aware, for a period of a few years up to 2006 some who worked for us, or in our name, fell shamefully short of those standards.
“Quite simply, we lost our way,” the paper admits.
“Phones were hacked, and for that this newspaper is truly sorry.
“There is no justification for this appalling wrongdoing. No justification for the pain caused to victims, nor for the deep stain it has left on a great history.
The presses began to roll on the final edition at about 2150 BST on Saturday
“Yet when this outrage has been atoned, we hope history will eventually judge us on all our years.”
Alan Edwards, one of the NoW journalists who has now lost his job, told the BBC it had been a “terribly emotional” final day on the paper, working on a “momentous edition”.
He said: “We wanted to leave with our heads held high. Whatever went on years ago was nothing to do with those of us who left yesterday.”
The family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was allegedly hacked after her abduction in 2002, is to meet Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on Monday to discuss the independent inquiries related to the phone hacking scandal, and will also meet Prime Ministerrt David Cameron.
Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown told the Observer he had warned the government to get rid of ex-NoW editor Andy Coulson as its communications director.
“I warned Number 10 within days of the election that they would suffer terrible damage if they did not get rid of Coulson, when these things came out, as it was inevitable they would,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Mr Clegg has also confirmed Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger had warned him about potential difficulties in relation to Mr Coulson’s role.
The prime minister has defended his decision to employ ex-NoW editor Andy Coulson
Mr Coulson resigned as the prime minister’s spokesman in January saying that ongoing hacking claims were distracting him from his job. He denies knowledge of phone hacking during his NoW editorship from 2003-07.
On Friday, the 43-year-old was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and alleged corruption. Former NoW royal editor Clive Goodman, 53 – who was jailed in 2007 for phone hacking – was arrested on suspicion of corruption.
An unnamed 63-year-old man was arrested at an address in Surrey on suspicion of corruption.
All three men have been released on bail until October.
In a letter to MPs released on Saturday, Mrs Brooks denied all knowledge of alleged hacking of the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler or any other case while she was editor.
