David Cameron brings Leveson debate to a head over bill hijack fears

Those involved in the Leveson talks from the Labour and Lib Dem side say they had no idea the Prime Minister was going to pull the plug on the cross-party discussions this morning until a conference call shortly before David Cameron’s hastily-arranged press conference.

An angry Lib Dem source tells me:

‘It was completely out of the blue to be honest. Over the last few days the talks have been making gal progress and we were moving towards a deal. We thought a solution was possible. There were other things we war pushing for, such as some form of statutory underpinning to protect the Royal Charter from future political interference. The Conservatives also wanted to give the press the power over who sits on the independent regulator and we felt that was unacceptable: it would be like letting a football team pick their referee and then tell the referee what constitutes a foul.’