Peer calls time on Leveson 2

A TORY peer who tried to resurrect plans for another multi-million-pound Press inquiry yesterday told his fellow plotters it was time to give up.

Lord Attlee urged the Lords to abandon any more challenges after the Commons rejected an attempt to stage a further Leveson-style probe for a second time earlier this week.

The peer, who was one of three Tories to back a rebel amendment to the Data Protection Bill, said they should not seek to hold the legislation ‘to ransom’.

He added: ‘We have had a good battle and now we have lost. We should not pursue it further. We should not hold a timesensitive Bill to ransom in order to force the Government to change policy. In my opinion, that would be wrong.’

‘I have campaigned very hard on this, but I could not convince my colleagues in the House of Commons, that is democracy. If they do not want to do it, it is their choice. There is another amendment tabled, I would hope that would be withdrawn.’

Lord Attlee is the grandson of former Labour prime minister Clement Attlee, who was in office from 1945 to 1951.

On Tuesday, the Commons rejected attempts to resurrect the £5.4million inquiry into historic allegations against newspapers.

MPs were forced to act again on the issue after peers attempted to amend the Data Protection Bill, ignoring an earlier vote in the Commons last week.

Downing Street later urged the Lords to finally ‘respect the wishes of the elected house’.

Theresa May heaped pressure on peers to abandon their assault on Press freedom and her official spokesman said: ‘We welcome the vote.

‘MPs have now voted twice to reject a backward-looking, disproportionate and costly Leveson 2 inquiry.’

Tuesday’s vote passed by 12 votes – 301 votes to 289 – an even larger majority than last week.