Peers launch new bid to curb freedom of the Press

LORDS have launched another attempt to muzzle the free Press just days after a bid was defeated in the Commons.

They demanded that the Leveson Inquiry into Press standards be reopened, despite MPs warning it would be ‘a blow to democracy’.

On Wednesday, MPs voted by 304 to 295 to block the establishment of a new inquiry, known as Leveson 2.

But yesterday, crossbench peer Baroness Hollins made fresh demands that a new inquiry be held.

Her bid has an exemption for local and regional newspapers, so any regulations the new inquiry recommends may apply to national titles only.

She tabled an amendment to the Data Protection Act, which will be debated in the Lords on Monday.

The new amendment will represent a fresh threat to Press freedom if it is backed by the Lords and returned to the Commons.

Crucially, the new amendment has a clause designed to discourage the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from voting with the Government.

The amendment could be passed if approved by the Lords and Jeremy Corbyn whips Labour MPs to vote for it in the Commons.

It is another attempt by the Lords to impose a policy that has been rejected by the Commons, following weeks of attempts by peers to frustrate Brexit by inflicting 14 defeats on the Government.

The Baroness Hollins amendment is similar to the bid by former Labour leader Ed Miliband, who was humiliated on Wednesday after his amendment was voted down.

She tabled the amendment to ‘establish an inquiry... into allegations of data protection breaches committed by or on behalf of national news publishers and other media organisations’. She told The Guardian this week there was ‘a certain amount of outrage’ at Wednesday’s vote.

She suggested the issue of whether to hold a new public inquiry into the media had been conflated during the Commons debate with a sepament rate proposal to impose punitive costs on publishers who do not sign up to an officially recognised Press regulator.

When peers last voted on the issue in January, they backed a new inquiry by 238 to 209.

Her bid includes a sop to the DUP, which made an agreement to vote with the Governafter the Tories lost their majority at the last election.

It requires ministers to consult Northern Ireland ministers and Assembly members.

Mr Miliband’s amendment was defeated with the support of the DUP, who were promised their own inquiry into the Northern Irish media in return for siding with Conservatives.

The Data Protection Bill is in the ‘ping-pong’ stage, which means the Lords and Commons send amendments back and forth until they agree.

A move by the Lords to push through a new inquiry into Press regulation just days after it was rejected by MPs will raise fresh concerns about its willingness to challenge the democratically elected House of Commons.

Tory MPs warned this week that the Upper House must be reined in after its repeated attempts to thwart Brexit. Senior party figures said the Lords had gone too far, with amendments wrecking the Government’s EU legislation.

Tory ex-leader Iain Duncan Smith warned of a ‘reckoning’ and a ‘total overhaul’.

The backlash was sparked by 14 amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill, including peers voting to keep Britain in the Single Market and to axe the fixed date for Brexit.

Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski said ‘out-of-control’ peers had tried to overturn the result of the EU referendum of June 2016, and abolition of the House of Lords should be in his party’s next manifesto.

He added: ‘The time has come to have a root-andbranch reform. These people are hurting the UK’s negotiating position with Brussels, which is unforgivable.’

‘A total overhaul’