Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has denied misleading the Leveson inquiry over how the details of his young son’s cystic fibrosis became public.
The Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP spoke out after News International wrote to the inquiry into press ethics asking for Mr Brown to give more evidence.
The letter came in response to an article in The Courier’s sister paper the Sunday Post revealing it knew Fraser Brown was ill ”weeks before” the information was published by the Sun.
But when Mr Brown said he did not want to comment on the story the paper decided not to publish.
News International, owners of the Sun, have seized on the revelation as being at odds with Mr Brown’s testimony under oath at Leveson that Fraser’s condition had been confirmed ”just before the Sun appeared with this information”.
But Mr Brown stood by his testimony and said the Sunday Post had only made a ”general inquiry” about the child’s health.
Campbell Gunn, political editor of the Sunday Post, confirmed he had approached the Brown family after learning Fraser was ill but had not known that the child had cystic fibrosis.
The paper had respected Mr Brown’s wish for privacy by not publishing the story.
Photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire