The Cameron/Brooks text messages

• 
  

Friday, Nov 09 20129AM 10°C12PM11°C5-Day Forecast




Is Cameron hiding 130 texts with Rebekah? PM accused of withholding intimate exchanges as Downing St insists it didn't possess a single one




By Tim Shipman

PUBLISHED:22:48, 4 November 2012| UPDATED:07:34, 5 November 2012

• Comments (149)
  
• Share
  
• 
  

Praise: Mrs Brooks text Cameron to praise a conference speech in texts handed to Leveson Inquiry

David Cameron was accused of withholding more than 130 text and email exchanges with Rebekah Brooks yesterday – as Downing Street insisted it didn’t possess a single one.


The row came as details emerged of intimate exchanges between the Prime Minister and Rupert Murdoch’s former right-hand woman.


Two messages between the PM and the former News International chief were leaked yesterday, laying bare the cosy relationship between the pair.


In one, Mr Cameron thanked Mrs Brooks for letting him ride one of her family’s horses, saying it was ‘fast, unpredictable and hard to control but fun’.


She is the wife of racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, who was at Eton with the Prime Minister, and was a member of his exclusive circle of Oxfordshire friends known as the Chipping Norton set.


In another message, Mrs Brooks praised Mr Cameron’s Tory Party conference speech in October 2009, saying: ‘Brilliant speech. I cried twice,’ and pledged: ‘Will love “working together”.’


The texts were among those handed to the Leveson Inquiry by News International, but were never published because they were regarded as irrelevant to the focus on the attempted Murdoch takeover of BSkyB.

But Labour frontbencher Chris Bryant yesterday said between 130 and 150 texts and emails held by No 10 have never been sent to the Leveson Inquiry.


More...

• Cameron to demand EU budget cuts in bid to recover billions from Brussels after Commons defeat
  
• Miliband brothers announce plans for 'living wage' of £7.20-an-hour for millions
  
• 'Separatism is a word of the past': European Council president deals blow to Salmond's Scottish independence campaign in video
  

He claimed he had spoken to a mole in No 10 about the messages and accused the PM of seeking to conceal them because they are ‘salacious and far more embarrassing’.

A Downing Street official hit back, saying no messages were handed over because none were found when officials searched the No 10 telephone archives.



Thanks: David Cameron thanked Rebekah Brooks for letting him ride one of her family's horses

An explanation could be that the computer system used to archive Mr Cameron’s mobile has not stored his texts properly since friends of Mrs Brooks say she was in regular text contact with him. The alternative is Mr Cameron used a different private mobile.


Mr Bryant demanded publication of all the texts and emails, because he believes it is ‘material’ what contact Mr Cameron had with News International officials other than just about the BSkyB bid.


He said: ‘The Leveson Inquiry is meant to refer to the whole of the relationship between the police, the Press and politicians and I think most ordinary members of the public would think that it is material whether the Prime Minister was texting Rebekah Brooks every day or just once every two years.’


Mr Cameron and Mrs Brooks met 22 times in a six-year period. She told the Leveson Inquiry that Mr Cameron signed some of his messages to her ‘LOL’ – until she told him it meant ‘Laugh Out Loud’, not ‘Lots Of Love’.


He was further embarrassed when it was revealed he had ridden a retired police horse loaned to Mrs Brooks by the Met Police.




,