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Javid takes charge of press brief as Miller quits

Rising Tory star Sajid Javid was today handed the press regulation brief after Maria Miller quit the Cabinet.

The culture, media and sport secretary resigned this morning after wrongly claiming more than £45,000 in MPs expenses for a second home.

She was swiftly replaced by the 35-year-old Treasury minister Mr Javid who now takes on responsibility for broadcasting and media policy as well as sport, tourism and the arts.

Mr Javid, the MP for Bromsgrove, is the first of the 2010 parliamentary intake of MPs to be promoted to the Cabinet and the first Asian man to serve in a Conservative Cabinet.

A close ally of Chancellor George Osborne, Mr Javid joined the government as economic secretary to the Treasury in September 2012 before being promoted to financial secretary to the Treasury last October.

He is replaced in that role by Nicky Morgan who also takes on Ms Miller’s role of minister for women.

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  • April 10, 2014 at 11:31 am
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    The Chartered Institute of Journalists is calling for an independent inquiry into allegations that advisors to the Culture Secretary tried to browbeat a Telegraph journalist investigating her expenses.

    Maria Miller’s resignation will not make the issue go away. Her behaviour highlights the ‘utter hypocrisy’ of politicians rejecting self-regulation of the press, while sitting in judgement on the expense claims of fellow MPs.

    Throughout the arguments about Leveson’s proposals for a press regulated by statute, journalists were told that their fight to retain self-regulation of the media was akin to “wanting to mark their own homework” and the press should instead be regulated by law.

    Now we find Members of Parliament watering down the findings of the independent body set up to oversee MPs expenses. Does Mrs Miller think that by resigning that she can wash her hands of the story?

    It is a truly bad day for democracy when Special Advisers at Westminster apparently seek to suppress legitimate journalistic investigation by making references to a Minister’s role in piloting controversial legislation about press regulation through the Commons.

    This is a striking illustration of why neither politicians or Government should play any part in regulating the activities of journalists, the vast majority of whom behave responsibly. The Daily Telegraph asked fair and reasonable questions about the behaviour of a leading member of the Government and was met with obfuscation and what look suspiciously like ‘veiled threats’.

    Paul Leighton President, Chartered Institute of Journalists

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