Burnham-On-Sea’s MP this week joined the debate in the House of Commons regarding phone hacking by national newspapers.
Tessa Munt attended both the Statement by the Prime Minister and the debate called by Labour on phone hacking.
After announcing his intention to hold an independent Public Inquiry into police corruption and illegal practices in the British press, David Cameron took questions from MPs and Tessa posed a question regarding police officers who are part of the inquiry.
She raised a point about those officers who leave the service under stress, or who subsequently retire, asking whether the PM could guarantee that the taxpayer would not be asked to fund police pensions for those who might be found guilty.
Mr Cameron accepted that this was a sensible point, but said he wasn’t sure of the rules and procedures involved but would look into it. He agreed that people should not be rewarded after wrongdoing.
Tessa told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “I was keen to get this specific point across. It would be a scandalous situation for any police officer found guilty to be rewarded with a service pension paid for by the taxpayer.”
“In many ways, that would be the final insult for people who have been at the receiving end of injustice. I have had a huge response to the matters discussed in Parliament today – people are upset and rightly so.”
Shortly after the statement by the Prime Minister, Rupert Murdoch dropped his bid to buy the remainder of BSkyB. Ofcom also announced its intention to investigate whether Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation were ‘fit and proper’ to hold the 39% they already hold in BSkyB.
Tessa said she is pleased with the cross-party agreement about dealing with the issues and the Prime Minister’s rapid call for an Inquiry, and most importantly, the public making Parliament flex its muscle against News International’s behaviour.
