George Osborne is to be questioned at the Leveson inquiry over his links to the Murdoch media empire, it was revealed today.
The Chancellor will appear in person on Monday — despite a request to provide just written evidence.
Mr Osborne’s appearance will kick off a week of high-profile witnesses to take the stand at the judicial inquiry into the media and politics.
Prime Minister David Cameron, his predecessor Gordon Brown and Labour leader Ed Miliband will also be questioned under oath next week about their relationship with media tycoons Rupert and James Murdoch.
All the senior politicians are also expected to face searching questions over their dealings with Murdoch lieutenants Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, both of whom have been charged with criminal offences related to the phone-hacking scandal. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond will also give evidence at the Royal Courts of Justice next week.
The Chancellor was instrumental in the decision to recruit Mr Coulson as Mr Cameron’s top spin doctor after the News of the World editor resigned over the phone-hacking scandal in 2007.
The Prime Minister and the Chancellor’s much-anticipated evidence is also expected to centre on the Government’s handling of News Corp’s £8 billion takeover of BSkyB.
Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne will be asked why they handed “independent” oversight of the bid to Jeremy Hunt when the Culture Secretary had been lobbying furiously behind the scenes for the deal to go through.
Mr Hunt is battling to stay as Culture Secretary following his evidence last week. Labour said it was clear he had breached the ministerial code, misled Parliament and should resign.
The Leveson inquiry uncovered hundreds of secret text messages and emails between the Murdoch empire and the office of the Culture Secretary while he was in a “quasi-judicial” role to decide on News Corp’s bid for BSkyB.
Rival media groups warned the deal would hand the Murdochs an unassailable stranglehold on Britain’s newspapers and television.
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The inquiry heard that Mr Hunt was in phone contact with James Murdoch on the day he was handed oversight of the deal. The Culture Secretary sent a text to the News Corp boss, hours before he was given responsibility for determining the BSkyB bid, to congratulate him on gaining EU clearance for the deal.
“Just Ofcom to go,” he told Mr Murdoch, referring to the broadcasting watchdog. Mr Hunt also texted Mr Osborne saying he was “seriously worried we are going to screw this up” minutes after Mr Cable was revealed to have been caught boasting he had “declared war” on the Murdoch empire.
He also emailed Mr Coulson, then director of communications at No 10, to say: “Could we chat about this ... am seriously worried Vince will do real damage to Coalition with his comments.”
Though the Culture Secretary had been expressing support in both public and private for the deal, the Prime Minister then decided to hand him responsibility for the bid as Mr Cable was forced to step aside because of his bias.
Mr Cameron formally dismissed demands for Mr Hunt to face an investigation into whether he breached ministerial rules, 25 minutes after the Culture Secretary left the witness box. Sources close to Mr Osborne said a request to appear was made on May 14, having previously only been asked to provide written evidence. A decision to announce the appearance was left in the hands of the Leveson inquiry.
“He is very relaxed and very happy to give evidence,” one source said. “It should be quite an interesting day with him and Gordon.”
