UK MPs reach deal on media regulation March 18, 2013 - 9:20PM British politicians have reached a deal on a new system of regulation for the press, the opposition Labour party says. "There is agreement," Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman old BBC radio on Monday. Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party, his Liberal Democrat junior coalition partners and Labour have been locked in talks for months on a new system of self-regulation for the press. But Cameron called a halt to the talks last week, saying the differences between his Tories on the one side and the Lib Dems and Labour on the other were irreconcilable. While details on the new agreement are scant, it appears that both sides are likely to be able to claim victory on the key sticking point of whether the regulation should be underpinned by law. Labour and the Lib Dems want statutory regulation as recommended by the Leveson inquiry, which Cameron commissioned in 2011 to look into press ethics following the voicemail hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's now closed News of the World. But the prime minister warned this would pose an unacceptable risk to press freedom, and instead proposed a new press watchdog be set up under a royal charter, a special document used to establish organisations such as the Bank of England and the BBC. He proposed to put his plans to a House of Commons vote on Monday, but amid signs that he would lose, representatives of all three parties launched a weekend push for a deal. Under the agreement outlined by Harman, the new press watchdog would be established under a royal charter. But this charter would be protected by a completely separate piece of legislation stating that all royal charters can only be modified by a two-thirds majority of the House of Commons. Culture Secretary Maria Miller, a member of Cameron's Conservative party, said she believed a deal would now go ahead but said the details still needed to be ironed out.