Cameron on Andrew Marr Show: No ‘Grand Deal’ with Murdochs

Prime Minister David Cameron has disclosed that he did not have any "grand deal," with the Murdochs to get the support of News International in return for favours to them.

"It would be absolutely wrong for there to be any sort of deal and there wasn't... There was no grand deal," Cameron told the BBC 1's Andrew Marr Show.

He also maintained that it was not correct to say that he altered policies and did things in favour of News Corp.

Speaking on the show on Sunday morning, Cameron said he did not believe that Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt behaved in a way which is against the ministerial code of conduct.

Defending the role of Hunt, Cameron said the contact between Hunt's special adviser Adam Smith and News Corporation's head of public affairs Frederic Michel over the BSkyB bid was wrong.

"There's absolutely no doubt that the contact between the special adviser in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and News International, that was too close, too frequent and that's why their special adviser resigned, and that was the right thing to do," Cameron said.

"I don't think it would be right in every circumstance if special advisers get something wrong to automatically sack the minister," he added.

Jeremy Hunt is presently under pressure to quit for his role in the BSkyB deal.

Defending his culture secretary, Cameron said: "He does a good job; I think he's a good culture, media and sport secretary. I think he's doing an excellent job on the Olympics and frankly I do think people deserve to have these things looked into properly".

Cameron told the show that there was no great mystery over the contact with the media as he wanted to have as many contacts with them including newspapers and television commentators to "take the country to a different direction".

He said he is ready to accept responsibility as the head of ministers and would not shy away from taking action if some evidence emerges against Hunt. At the same time he admitted that some of his contacts with the News Corp were embarrassing.

"Clearly, after all that's been written and said about it, yes of course one might do things differently," replied Cameron to a question on his presence at the media mogul's parties.