UK minister admits sex worker relationship

Labour has called for Culture Secretary John Whittingdale to withdraw from press regulation decisions after news of his relationship with an escort.

Shadow culture secretary Maria Eagle said it had left him "vulnerable" to pressure from the press.

Four newspapers knew about the relationship, which ended in 2014, but decided not to publish the story.

Whittingdale, who said he had not known she was a sex worker, said it had not affected any of his decisions.

Eagle said Whittingdale should "recuse" himself from any further involvement in decisions over the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics.

Downing Street said Whittingdale "is a single man entitled to a private life" and had the full confidence of the prime minister.

‘BIT EMBARRASING’

Whittingdale told BBC's Newsnight: "Between August 2013 and February 2014, I had a relationship with someone who I first met through Match.com.

"She was a similar age and lived close to me. At no time did she give me any indication of her real occupation and I only discovered this when I was made aware that someone was trying to sell a story about me to tabloid newspapers. As soon as I discovered, I ended the relationship.

"This is an old story which was a bit embarrassing at the time. The events occurred long before I took up my present position and it has never had any influence on the decisions I have made as culture secretary."

At the time of the relationship, Whittingdale was chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee. He was appointed culture secretary the following year.

Four newspapers - the People, the Mail on Sunday, The Sun and the Independent - had investigated the claims but had concluded the story was not in the public interest, Newsnight reported.

James Cusick, a former Independent reporter who looked at the story for five months, said: "If this individual is making these decisions - decisions that would affect the way people look at newspapers, the way newspapers behave, the way the BBC is allowed to be, you have a right to know about this man's private life and whether there is something in it he is trying to hold back from you."

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said the question for Whittingdale was not about his relationship, but about his role in regulating the press when the newspapers had a story about his private life.

‘DOING THE RIGHT THING’

On Sunday the journalism website Byline reported that Whittingdale had had a relationship with a professional dominatrix and fetish escort.

The newspapers told Newsnight they did not run the story because it was not in the public interest.

Media commentator and former newspaper editor Roy Greenslade said newspapers would have been wary about covering such a story in the aftermath of the Leveson report on press standards.

"They would have all taken separate legal advice, they would have all looked at their code of practice. I think it is a bit much to castigate the newspapers for doing the right thing for once," he told Newsnight.

"I can't see that there was a genuine story there," he added.

‘NO FAITH’

However, Brian Cathcart, co-founder of campaign group Hacked Off which wants tougher press regulation, said Whittingdale's credibility had been damaged.

"The public cannot have faith in his judgment, in his independence in making decisions about the media," he told Newsnight.

"It is not a story about John Whittingdale's private life. It is a story about why the press didn't cover this.

"To suggest in the very week we have newspapers baying for the right to cover a story about a celebrity's private life which a judge has told them they have no right to cover, they would be too scrupulous, too high-minded to report a story about a Cabinet minister which any judge in the country would tell them they have a right to cover is just absurd."