John Whittingdale's escort liaison ‘makes him vulnerable’

Labour today stepped up pressure on Culture Secretary John Whittingdale to withdraw from press regulation decisions after it was revealed that he had a relationship with an escort.

Shadow culture secretary Maria Eagle claimed it had left him “vulnerable” to pressure from the press.

“In order for the public to have any confidence in the Government’s approach to press regulation and to allay any concerns about perceptions of any undue influence, the Secretary of State must now recuse himself from any decision making over this matter,” she added.

She also called on him to explain why he is not implementing more fully proposals which emerged from the Leveson inquiry and pressing ahead with part two of it into ties between the press and police.

Mr Whittingdale, who is single, said the relationship took place long before he became a minister although he was chairman of the all-party Culture, Media and Sport Committee at the time.

“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 in a statement.

“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.”

He insisted that “the events” had never influenced his decisions as Culture Secretary. Downing Street said the Prime Minister had “full confidence” in Mr Whittingdale.

Four newspapers, The Sun, The People, The Mail on Sunday and The Independent were understood to have looked into claims about his relationship but decided not to publish stories on it.

Tory MP Crispin Blunt, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said the decision by the tabloids “would raise an eyebrow”.

Amol Rajan, who was editor of the print edition of The Independent and is on paternity leave, said: “I rejected this story on editorial grounds.”

Tom Newton-Dunn, The Sun’s political editor, told Sky News: “We didn’t publish the story because, quite frankly, there is no story. He is a single man, a divorced man — you can pretty much have a relationship with anyone you want.”

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

However, campaigners for tighter press regulation accused the papers of hypocrisy, pointing out that as chairman of the Culture Committee, Mr Whittingdale had opposed statutory regulation.