Newspapers under fire over failure to publish Whittingdale escort story

The Culture Secretary John Whittingdale was last night facing calls to be stripped of his responsibility for press regulation after it emerged that a number of national newspapers knew about but failed to print embarrassing information about his private life.

Mr Whittingdale yesterday confirmed that he had been in a six-month relationship with a sex worker that ended in 2013.

Three of the newspapers – The People, The Sun and The Mail on Sunday – are understood to have concluded that there was no public interest defence for publication. The Independent, which had investigated the reasons why the other papers had not run the story, also chose not to publish.

Mr Whittingdale, who is divorced, said yesterday that he had been unaware of the woman’s occupation and had broken off the relationship when he discovered the story was being offered to the newspapers.

However, some senior Labour figures and groups favouring statutory regulation of the press suggested that the story had been shelved so as not to alienate a key figure involved in press regulation.

Labour's shadow culture secretary Maria Eagle said that it was now essential for Mr Whittingdale to give up his responsibilities for press regulation to ensure there was no perception of “undue influence” in his dealings with newspapers.

Labour’s shadow cabinet minister Chris Bryant, who was previously shadow culture secretary, told the BBC: “It seems the press were quite deliberately holding a sword of Damocles over John Whittingdale.

“He has a perfect right to a private life but as soon as he knew this he should have withdrawn from all regulation of the press.”

But Downing Street rejected the call, insisting that David Cameron had “full confidence” in Mr Whittingdale. And Labour’s shadow Foreign Secretary, Hilary Benn, appeared to distance himself from Ms Eagle’s demand for Mr Whittingdale to give up his responsibilities for press regulation.

He told BBC2’s Daily Politics program that the culture secretary “ought to get on and do his job”, including pressing ahead with the second stage of the Leveson Inquiry.

The executive director of the Society of Editors, Bob Satchwell, said it is a “preposterous conspiracy theory too far” to say newspapers and broadcasters “jointly decided not to publish” the story.

“The idea that the newspapers and broadcasters could all get together and say 'we are not running the story' is just silly,” he said.

“Since the Leveson report and the establishment of a new and tougher press regulator, papers have become extremely careful about stories involving anyone in public life.”

Amol Rajan, who was editor of the print edition of The Independent and is currently on paternity leave said: “As I said in my email to one of the sources who was demanding we publish this tale – an email I was fully aware would later be made public – I rejected this story on editorial grounds.”

But Brian Cathcart, of the Hacked Off campaign group, said that since becoming Culture Secretary with responsibility for the media, Mr Whittingdale had taken a number of decisions which had been welcomed by the press.

“The public cannot have faith in his judgment, in his independence in making decisions about the media,” he said. “It is not a story about John Whittingdale's private life. It is a story about why the press didn't cover this.”

“To suggest, in the very week we have newspapers baying for the right to cover a story about a celebrity’s private life which a judge has told them they have no right to cover, they would be too scrupulous, too high-minded to report a story about a Cabinet minister which any judge in the country would tell them they have a right to cover is just absurd.”

However, the media commentator and former newspaper editor Roy Greenslade said that the papers would have been wary about covering such a story in the aftermath of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.

“They would all be very careful about whether or not they had a public interest justification,” he told said.

“They would have all taken separate legal advice, they would have all looked at their code of practice. I think it is a bit much to castigate the newspapers for doing the right thing for once.”

In a statement, Mr Whittingdale confirmed the affair but insisted it “never had any influence on the decisions I have made as Culture Secretary”.

“Between August 2013 and February 2014, I had a relationship with someone who I first met through Match.com. She was a similar age and lived close to me,” he said.

“At no time did she give me any indication of her real occupation and I only discovered this when I was made aware that someone was trying to sell a story about me to tabloid newspapers. As soon as I discovered, I ended the relationship.

”This is an old story which was a bit embarrassing at the time.”