Leveson deal: David Cameron agrees to press regulation: live 12.46 Hacked Off says "all parties are now behind" Lord Justice Leveson's proposals. The campaign group says it thinks the new deal will lead to a fair new system. 12.43 Jonathan Dimbleby, the veteran broadcaster and chairman of the Index on Censorship, has echoed earlier concerns from within the media about the new proposals. As Chair of Index on Censorship, I have to report that the Index board of trustees - who all occupy senior positions in roles both within and outside of the media - is dismayed at the course of developments that have been taken in establishing a new press regulator. The board has the gravest anxiety at the residual political powers the now expected outcome and system will give to politicians. The two thirds block on any changes to the royal charter could be abused in the future - not least when today's emerging consensus shows that the parties can come together in both houses to agree on press regulation. 12.27 Christopher Hope, our senior political correspondent, was at the lobby briefing. He reports Downing Street's views that: The "Rubicon" of state regulation has not been crossed. Asked if the Prime Ministers feet are a "bit wet," PM's official spokesman said: "No." He added: "What you have today - which is a good thing - is cross party agreement on a royal charter approach that the Prime Minister proposed several weeks back." Apparently the fact that the royal charter which will govern the press only applies to documents signed by the Queen after 1 March 2013 is not solely aimed at the press. PM's spokesman said that "thousands" of these charters are signed every year. Very few will govern entire industries though. Buckingham Palace has not yet been told about the change to the rules governing royal charters. David Cameron was kept across the detail of the talks late into the night, the PM's spokesman says. But he declines to answer repeated questions about whether he was asleep when the deal was done at 2.30am. He confirms that Oliver Letwin, the Cabinet Office minister, was in the room negotiating with Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and four members of the Hacked Off campaign group. No sign of Culture secretary Maria Miller either. PM's spokesman says: "He was certainly being kept in close touch - I can't give you an exact timing of it." Asked which four Government regulations will be scrapped by the introduction of the new royal charter (because of the Goverment's 'four in, one out' rule for new regulations), Number 10 referred the question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Asked how the changes announced today by the Government will stop phone hacking, the spokesman said: "It will put in place the strong system of independent regulation of the press that was at the heart of the Leveson report." 12.23 A Number 10 briefing this morning has revealed the Prime Minister might have been asleep while his representative, Oliver Letwin, was doing a final deal with Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg - and members of Hacked Off. Chris Ship of ITV reckons this might not have been the best idea given how Labour managed to get up early and start spinning their version of the story: 12.16 Conor Burns, a Conservative MP who has led the campaign to protect a freee press, is on the BBC's Daily Politics sounding a bit sceptical about the deal, calling it "grubby." He said he wants to feel more reassured about why the legal clause backing a Royal Charter does not represent "statutory underpinning." 12.09 Two Telegraph bloggers are calling it a "shoddy" deal. Toby Young, the author and commentator, says: I hope that as many newspapers, magazines and websites as possible refuse to join the new regulatory system. To do so would be to accept the principle that politicians should be the ultimate arbiters of how much freedom they enjoy. Instead, they should set up their own system of self-regulation which is genuinely voluntary. If swinging fines are imposed upon them by the courts because they have neglected to sign up to the new, Parliament-approved regulator, they should refuse to pay those fines and vigorously challenge any attempt to enforce payment, including appealing to the European Court of Human Rights. Meanwhile, Dan Hodges, a lifelong Labour supporter, does not share his party's excitement over the deal: Today it is in the interest of everyone - the press aside - to paint the agreement as a historic one. But by this time next year, I suspect perceptions will be starting to change. As some of the inevitable problems arise with the implementation of the new Royal Charter, the compromise will come to be seen as a "messy" one. Over time the "historic moment" will be viewed - and described - as a missed opportunity. Then one day someone will ask "who is actually happy with the current system?." And given that no one was happy in the first place, not a single hand will be raised. At which point, as sure as night follows day, people will start to say "We need to finish what Leveson started." 11.59 Some Tory MPs are sounding a little hurt and confused about their loyalty to the Prime Minister over Leveson. The Prime Minister repeatedly refused countenance any "dangerous" statute underpinning press regulation - a line that was trotted out by dozens of supportive backbenchers. Now that promise appears to have been watered down. One Tory ministerial aide has told Gary Gibbon of Channel Four that Mr Cameron "marched us up the hill again, only to march us down... Every time he does it it it hurts his authority." Another Tory MP, Tracey Crouch, implies she regards the deal as a u-turn by the leadership. 11.50 Newspaper bosses are still examining the proposals and awaiting an official statement to Parliament by David Cameron later this afternoon. However, we report the Index on Censorship is not happy. Its chief executive, Kirsty Hughes says it is a "sad day for press freedom: Requiring a two third majority from both Houses for future changesin the Royal Charter introduces political involvement for all time into press regulation in the UK. It is a bleak moment for the UK's international reputation as a country where press freedom is cherished as a fundamental principle and right. The fact that this requirement is now being applied to all Royal Charters is a rushed and fudged attempt to pretend this is not just a press law; it resembles precisely the kind of political manoeuvring we see in Hungary today - where the government is amending its own constitution through a parliamentary vote undermining key principles of their democracy. 11.47 The amendment will be proposed later this afternoon by Lord Stevenson, a former adviser to Gordon Brown, as part of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. Its full text is expected to be: Where a body is established by Royal Charter after 1 March 2013 with functions relating to the carrying on of an industry, no recommendation may be made to Her Majesty in Council to amend the body's Charter or dissolve the body unless any requirements included in the Charter on the date it is granted for Parliament to approve the amendment or dissolution have been met. 11.42 It seems Hacked Off were involved in talks on the compromise deal that stretched late into the night in Ed Miliband's office. There is even some suggestion that Hugh Tomlinson QC, its chair, drafted part of the legal amendment that will be proposed in the House of Lords this afternoon. 11.29 Labour claims Hacked Off - the group representing victims of press intrusion - will be "very pleased" with the outcome. We won't get an full statement from them until 4pm today, but some people closely associated with the group have been sounding postive on Twitter. This is its official response: 11.21 All three political party leaders have been on the airwaves trumpeting their triumphs over the Leveson deal - despite their substantial differences over the last few months. As you'll see from the quotes, they are still completely at odds over whether the new press regulator is "underpinned by statute" or not. This is David Cameron: It's not statutory underpinning. What it is is simply a clause that says "politicians can't fiddle with this," so it takes it further away from politicians, which is actually, I think, a sensible step. What we wanted to avoid and what we have avoided is a press law. Nowhere would it say what this body is, what it does, what it can't do, what the press can or can't do - that, quite rightly, is being kept out of Parliament. So no statutory underpinning, but a safeguard that says politicians can't in future fiddle with this arrangement. Nick Clegg said: [It's] underpinned by legislation both to implement a new system of costs and damages, but crucially to stop future governments from messing around with the Royal Charter in a way that I think would be bad for everyone, and in that way, I believe we've struck the right balance between protecting and enshrining the freedom of the press, which is an ancient principle, which everybody believes in, but also making sure that those terrible examples of what happened, for instance to the family of Milly Dowler do not happen again, again without people who are caught up like that totally innocently, having some protection from that kind of behaviour. And Ed Miliband: It will be underpinned by statute - why is that important? Because it stops ministers or the press meddling with it or watering it down in the future, it will be a regulator, a system of complaints where the regulator has teeth so they can direct apologies if wrong is done, and it's independent of the press, which is so important because for too long we've had a system where the press has been marking their own homework. This is independent - it's not politicians who are doing, it's not the press who are doing it, it's an independent system of regulation, and I think that that means we've avoided where went wrong in the past which is, as I say, the press marking its own homework. 11.15 The Prime Minister has always promised there would be "no statutory underpinning" for the regulator because this could be "dangerous" to press freedom. He clashed on this point with Labour and the Lib Dems, as statutory underpinning was recommended by the Leveson Report into media ethics. Mr Cameron today insisted that a small legal clause governing the Royal Charter does not amount to "statutory underpinning." However, Labour, the Lib Dems, and the Hacked Off campaign group for victims of press intrusion are all hailing a victory because there will be legislation governing newspapers for the first time in 300 years. 11.05 David Cameron has confirmed that there is a deal with Labour and the Lib Dems that will set up a new regulator for newspapers. It will be created under a Royal Charter - an order by the Queen - and backed up with "a bit of statute." 11.00 Welcome to the Leveson liveblog for March 18 2013.