David Cameron has dramatically pulled the plug on efforts to reach cross-party consensus on press regulation, announcing he will bring the matter to a head by forcing a vote in the House of Commons on Monday.
In a move which surprised both Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband, the Prime Minister said he will publish a Royal Charter to underpin a new self-regulatory system for the press without the need for parliamentary legislation.
Mr Cameron was accused of a “shameless betrayal of victims of press abuse” by the Hacked Off campaign, which is pushing for full implementation of last year’s Leveson Report recommendations, including an independent regulator underpinned by statute.
But he insisted that the Tory proposals provided “the fastest possible way” to deliver “the toughest press regulation that this country has ever seen”.
And his initiative was welcomed by representatives of some of the UK’s biggest newspaper groups, who said they shared his frustration at the cross-party talks being “hijacked” by advocates of legislation.
Meanwhile, First Minister Alex Salmond met representatives of Scottish newspaper industry and members of the cross-party group on media regulation on Wednesday.
An expert group set up by the Scottish Government is considering how Leveson should be implemented North of the border and its report is due to published today.
At Westminster, Labour and Liberal Democrats said they will “reach out” to Tory MPs to build cross-party agreement ahead of Monday’s vote but it remained unclear whether they will table a rival amendment to legislate for press regulation.