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Bell Pottinger 'helped choose Rebekah Brooks' phone hacking arrest station' Mm11

Bell Pottinger 'helped choose Rebekah Brooks' phone hacking arrest station' Regist10
The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann™
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Bell Pottinger 'helped choose Rebekah Brooks' phone hacking arrest station' Mm11

Bell Pottinger 'helped choose Rebekah Brooks' phone hacking arrest station' Regist10

Bell Pottinger 'helped choose Rebekah Brooks' phone hacking arrest station'

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Post by Guest 07.12.11 13:59

Bell Pottinger 'helped choose Rebekah Brooks' phone hacking arrest station'

Bell Pottinger Public Affairs executives helped Rebekah Brooks, the embattled former chief executive of News International, choose which police station she would like to be arrested in and questioned.


By Andrew Hough, Christopher Hope, Rowena Mason

7:00AM GMT 07 Dec 2011

Senior members of the prominent public affairs company described to the undercover investigators how they helped the former tabloid editor in the days following her resignation.


Mrs Brooks, the former editor of the now-defunct News of the World and The Sun, was arrested and questioned after agreeing to attend a police station in July, a few days after she resigned from NI.


The 43 year-old, the tenth person arrested since the Metropolitan Police re-opened its phone-hacking probe in January, was the most high-profile News International figure to have been arrested so far.


She was arrested in relation to both the ongoing investigations into phone-hacking and alleged illegal payments to police officers. She was bailed and has not been charged.


David Wilson, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Relations, and Tim Collins, managing director of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs, told investigators from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism how they tried to control Mrs Brooks' arrest.


The Independent reported that Mr Collins said Bell Pottinger’s advice had stretched to helping choose which police station she should be questioned at.

He said: “Dave (Wilson) was on the phone … ‘No, that nick’s not quite right, no no, that one’s got a car park, no that one’s down a tunnel’, and I thought he was on to some very dodgy part of the criminal underworld but in fact it was his brother-in-law who’s a police officer.”

Mr Wilson, who has acted as a spokesman for Ms Brooks since her resignation, said he had waited outside for her while she was questioned. “She’s been very open and honest and said, ‘I didn’t know a thing, didn’t know any of it’. She said that yesterday and to be honest I believe her.

"Sunday [I was] actually sitting in the front seat of a car in a side street round the back of a police station in a certain London borough waiting for 12 hours until she came out having been arrested and taking one call and having four waiting – it was quite interesting stuff.”

Meanwhile Bell Pottinger, who Mrs Brooks hired following her resignation, also claimed to “Uzbek business representatives” how they helped prepare her with evidence before she appeared before MPs in July.

"She spent all... morning in the room opposite this corridor while we were very rude to her to prepare her for the select committee," said Mr Collins.

"We were four hours in a waiting room adjacent to the committee room waiting to go in. She was really upset actually, in tears when Rupert got attacked because he is her mentor.

"He's almost like a father figure to her. I know there are stories about her in the past, I didn't know her too well in the past, so I won't comment on whether she was ruthless or whatever, I must say I see a very honorable, honest woman who's trying to fight to clear her name at the moment."

The executives also spoke in less than glowing terms about NI’s public relations strategy.

"Dave's the PR expert but the problem from our perspective is News International were making a lot of mistakes in the two weeks or so prior to [her resignation] and they've just started making fewer," Mr Collins said.

Last night Lord Bell, the chairman of Chime Communications which owns Bell Pottinger, was pictured arriving at his company’s office in Mayfair, central London. He did not comment.

Mrs Brooks was unavailable for comment on Tuesday and the firm has not commented on the revelations.

The disclosures came as David Cameron faced under growing pressure to introduce a register of lobbyists after claims Bell Pottinger have been able to influence him and senior Cabinet ministers.

Executives from the were secretly taped claiming to be able to directly influence the Prime Minister, his inner circle and other senior Government figures.

They claimed they were able to on behalf of private sector clients, including vacuum cleaner maker James Dyson.

David Cameron is under growing pressure to introduce a register of lobbyists after claims that staff at a prominent public affairs firm have been able to influence him and other members of his inner circle.

Labour called for the Cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell to investigate.

A presentation prepared by Bell Pottinger suggested the firm could get access to Foreign secretary William Hague, one of his advisers, and Alistair Burt, a foreign office minister, and would target as “a priority” Mark Prisk, a Business minister.

In a second set of revelations it emerged last night that Bell Pottinger claimed to have access to Vince Cable, the Business Secretary.

Undercover investigators from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism filmed executives saying that the best way to get to Mr Cable was to arrange meetings with his “special adviser”, Giles Wilkes.

The firm claimed that as a result of Bell Pottinger’s intervention, Mr Cable had visited a factory owned by car manufacturer Lotus, one of the firm’s clients that was looking for Government assistance.

Mr Collins added that one of Bell Pottinger’s staff, Stephen Lotinga, used to work for the Liberal Democrats and had close relationships with all of the party’s special advisers working in Government.

“Stephen Lotinga, my colleague, knows Giles [Wilkes] very well, he headed up the Liberal Democrat home policy unit until the time of the general election so all the people who went into government and became Liberal Democrat special advisers all worked for him up to and including the general election,” Mr Collins said.

“So he knows all of them, still talks to them socially. We actually took a client in to see Giles last week, last Thursday, so it’s not something that is difficult for us to do.”

Asked why they did not recommend going to Mr Cable and if it was because he was cantankerous, Mr Collins replied: “Yes. And Vince’s starting point on a lot of these issues is he will think about politics and the presentation first and substance second.”

Bell Pottinger also allegedly admitted that clients were advised not to donate money to political parties because it was “becoming counterproductive”.

Last night, a spokesman for the Business Secretary admitted that Mr Wilkes did know Mr Lotinga but said it was “not an especially close relationship”.

She categorically denied that Bell Pottinger had helped facilitate any meetings either with Mr Cable or Mr Wilkes, adding that the Lotus visit had not been facilitated by Bell Pottinger in any way.

The scandal involving Bell Pottinger is the latest in a series that has embarrassed the the Coalition, most notably one involving the access enjoyed by Adam Werritty to the former defence secretary Liam Fox.

The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency, a campaign group, last night called for the immediate introduction of a statutory register of lobbyists, to open up the industry to wider public scrutiny.

Tamasin Cave, a spokesman for the alliance, said: “Another month, another lobbying scandal involving this Government. The last led to the resignation of the Defence Secretary. This one leads straight to the Prime Minister.

“Just last year, David Cameron was warning us of a £2billion influence industry ‘out of control’. The situation under his leadership is undoubtedly worse.” That came as a survey of MPs showed a majority in favour of a statutory register.

Of 115 MPs questioned by Populus over the past four weeks, 62 per cent agreed that a statutory register would help the democratic process, compared with 13 per cent who said it would not.

But just 12 per cent said that public relations professionals were a “hindrance” to their work as MPs, compared with 57 per cent who said they were not. Forty-one of the MPs questioned said that occasions when they socialised with lobbyists were “an important part of an MP’s week”, against 33 who disagreed.

Mr Collins also reportedly claimed that Bell Pottinger had got Mr Cameron to raise the matter of copyright infringement with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao on behalf of electronics entrepreneur James Dyson.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Jon Trickett increased the pressure on Mr Cameron by sending a series of questions to the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, including whether Mr Cameron by any member of his staff to enquire about Bell Pottinger’s client with the Chinese.

Cabinet Office sources said that plans for a register could be published as soon as next month.

They were being held up by concerns about the definition of a lobbyist, including whether it included charities, and whether a register might prevent people from their democratic right to make representations to Government.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “The Government has repeatedly emphasised the commitment made in the coalition agreement to bring greater transparency to lobbying by establishing a statutory register. We plan to bring forward proposals in the coming weeks.”

However last night Lord Bell, the chairman of Chime Communications which owns Bell Pottinger, said that a statutory register would not do any good, adding that there was nothing in the claims that demonstrated “any improper behaviour”.

He told The Daily Telegraph that a register “patently” would not work, adding: “If you are trying to find misbehaviour – it occurs no matter what the rules are.

“If Number 10 say they weren’t influenced [over Dyson] then they weren’t influenced. If we think they were influenced, we are entitled to that view. I am a great supporter of the freedom of the press and a great believer in self-regulation. This story does nothing to enhance either argument.”

Mr Cameron’s spokesman said companies would do better to go through the official channels to speak to ministers and civil servants about their concerns.

He said: “It simply isn't true to say that Bell Pottinger or any other lobbying company has influenced Government policy. Clearly it is in their interests to tell their clients that they can provide them with a service and that is what they appear to be doing.

“The fact that the PM has spoken to the Chinese about the issue of intellectual property rights is unsurprising. He’s made very clear his support for British business and his desire to work to further our trade relationships.”

A Department for Business spokesman said: "Mark Prisk has had no dealings with Tim Collins since being appointed as a Minister. In line with the Government's transparency policy, all meetings that BIS ministers have are published on a monthly basis on our website."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "Neither William Hague or Alistair Burt have had any meetings with Bell Pottinger in Government.

"To say that Bell Pottinger or indeed any other lobbying company has influenced government policy is simply untrue."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8939642/Bell-Pottinger-helped-choose-Rebekah-Brooks-phone-hacking-arrest-station.html
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Post by Guest 07.12.11 15:56

Bell Pottinger, the same Bell Pottinger that was called in by Mark Warner after Madeleine mysteriously vanishes ?
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Post by Badboys 07.12.11 18:56

Stella wrote:Bell Pottinger, the same Bell Pottinger that was called in by Mark Warner after Madeleine mysteriously vanishes ?

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