Morning Report – July 11th

As the News of the World was released for the final time yesterday, you might have thought that the phone hacking scandal would be winding down. You’d be wrong. This Wednesday, Labour will put a motion to the commons that will seek to kick the BSkyB takeover into the long grass – and the leadership are confident of winning. Writing in the FT, Alastair Campbell argues that this is a chance to reform the press in this country and “escape Murdoch’s embrace” – and including an interesting story of a Murdoch party attended by Campbell, Cameron and Brown a couple of years ago.

The backlash against the Murdoch-Cameron axis has begun in earnest amongst Tory activists too, with Tim Montgomerie suggesting that Cameron’s closeness to News International cost him the election, rather than helping him win it.

The big question on BSkyB though is whether or not the Lib Dems will back the Labour motion to delay (or even put a stop to) the takeover. In an interview with the Independent, the DPM suggests that Murdoch’s troubles are an opportunity for the Lib Dems. A cruel person might say that it’s an opportunity they’re not taking advantage of…

Elsewhere, the Southern Cross care centre group looks to be in trouble – and is likely to close. Shares in the ailing company have been suspended. This will no doubt heap further pressure on the government, and may well remind the public that this is the crisis that the Tories were meant to be dealing with when the latest crisis came along…