MPs request Murdochs at hearing

12 July 2011 Last updated at 15:14 GMT Rupert Murdoch arrived in the UK on Sunday to handle the crisis The government is to back a Labour call for Rupert Murdoch to withdraw his bid to fully takeover BSkyB.

MPs will vote on Wednesday on a motion "that it is in the public interest" for the bid to be shelved.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt - who was due to make the final decision on the takeover - will not vote.

Mr Murdoch, his son James and News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks have also been asked to appear before a Commons committee next week.

The culture, media and sport committee has submitted a "polite request" to News International for the executives to appear before it next Tuesday.

Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy PM Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband are to meet at 1830 BST to discuss details of proposed inquiries into phone hacking allegations.

Commons debate

Mr Miliband and Mr Clegg this week met the Dowler family - whose daughter Milly was murdered in 2002 and, it is alleged, had her mobile phone hacked into by a private investigator working for the News of the World.

And in a Commons debate on Wednesday, MPs will be asked to vote on a Labour motion that "this House believes that it is in the public interest for Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation to withdraw its bid for BSkyB".

Mr Clegg had already made a similar call and Downing Street has said the government, with the exception of Mr Hunt who has a quasi-judicial role in the final decision, will back the motion.

Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corporation, flew into the UK on Sunday to take charge of the phone hacking crisis.

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We have been made aware of the request from the CMS committee to interview senior executives and will co-operate”

End Quote News International He and his son James, the chairman, and chief executive of News International Mrs Brooks - a former editor of the News of the World - have been asked, but not summoned, to appear before the committee next week.

It is unclear whether the committee could compel the Murdochs, who are US citizens, to attend but could do so with Mrs Brooks.

However a spokeswoman for the committee said a "polite request" had been made to News International for the three to attend.

The culture, media and sport committee, chaired by the Conservative MP John Whittingdale, looked into phone hacking allegations in 2009, as part of a wider inquiry.

'Powerful oligarch'

In 2003, when she was editor of the Sun, Mrs Brooks appeared before the committee during an inquiry into media intrusion when she famously told MPs: "We have paid the police for information in the past."

It is not currently holding an inquiry into the latest phone hacking allegations - next Tuesday's hearing would be a specially convened one-off evidence session.

A spokeswoman for News International did not say whether all three executives would attend but said: "We have been made aware of the request from the CMS committee to interview senior executives and will co-operate. We await the formal invitation."

Tom Watson - a Labour member of the committee who has led a campaign against phone hacking - told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "We've invited them and we want them there next Tuesday.

"We want to ask Rebekah Brooks about her knowledge of payments to the police, we'd like to ask James Murdoch about how he authorised payments to silences Gordon Taylor and I think we'd like to ask Rupert Murdoch, he might be the most powerful media oligarch on the planet, I think he owes Mr and Mrs Dowler an apology."

Mr Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, received an out-of-court settlement over claims his phone was hacked in April 2008. James Murdoch said last week he regretted having approved out-of-court settlements when he did not have "a complete picture".

He also said the paper had "made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts".

Committee chairman Mr Whittingdale said: "In light of the extraordinary developments this week around phone hacking, serious questions have arisen about the evidence given to the committee by a number of witnesses in its previous inquiry into press standards, libel and privacy.

"In particular, James Murdoch has said that Parliament was misled.

"That is a very serious matter that we will not allow to go unquestioned. We are therefore today calling James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch, and Rebekah Brooks to appear before us next week."