Jeremy Hunt to make Commons statement Mr Hunt will address MPs in the House of Commons at 12.30pm, said his Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Culture Secretary insisted he had behaved "scrupulously fairly" as he fought for his political life over claims that he secretly backed News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch's attempt to buy the 61% of the satellite broadcaster which his company did not own. Labour leader Ed Miliband accused him of "acting as a back-channel" for the Murdochs, after emails from News Corp executive Frederic Michel were released by the Leveson Inquiry into press standards. The messages appeared to show regular and intensive contact with Mr Hunt's office during the period when he was in a quasi-judicial role deciding whether the bid should go ahead. Labour said the emails showed Mr Hunt passed secret information to News Corp and misled Parliament over the extent of his contacts with the company. The Tory Cabinet minister told reporters as he left his home this morning: "I made my position very clear, I am going to be making a very, very determined effort to show that I behaved with total integrity and conducted this process scrupulously fairly." He wrote to Lord Justice Leveson yesterday asking for his appearance before the inquiry to be brought forward to the earliest possible date to allow him to give his version of events. Mr Cameron's own links to the Murdochs will also come under the spotlight following yesterday's evidence from James Murdoch at the inquiry. The News Corp executive revealed that he and the Prime Minister briefly discussed the BSkyB bid in December 2010 - two days after Business Secretary Vince Cable was stripped of his decision-making power on the takeover. That was at a Christmas dinner hosted by News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks that the Prime Minister attended on December 23 2010. Mr Murdoch told the inquiry that he and Mr Cameron mentioned what had happened. Labour said the 163-page dossier of emails from Mr Michel showed that Mr Hunt failed to fulfil his quasi-judicial role in relation to the proposed takeover, which he had promised to carry out in a "fair and even-handed" way. Mr Miliband said: "He should resign. He himself said that his duty was to be transparent, impartial and fair in the BSkyB takeover. But now we know that he was providing advice, guidance and privileged access to News Corporation. He was acting as a back-channel for the Murdochs. He cannot stay in his post. And if he refuses to resign, the Prime Minister must show some leadership and fire him. Mr Hunt was given responsibility for the BSkyB takeover bid after Mr Cable was secretly recorded telling reporters he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch. News Corp was seeking to buy the 61% share in BSkyB it did not already own, but dropped the bid on July 13 last year after public outcry over the revelation that the News of the World hacked murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone. Mr Hunt has denied being a "cheerleader" for Rupert Murdoch, saying: "Before the process, I had my views on Mr Murdoch like everyone has their views. Once I took on this quasi-judicial role, things changed and then I was totally different. That was why I decided - because I had expressed views in the past, like many people have about the Murdochs and BSkyB - that it was important to get the advice of BSkyB and independent regulators, and after consideration I followed that advice. Conservative former Cabinet minister Lord Fowler, who chaired the House of Lords communications committee and was opposed to the takeover, said: "I think probably Jeremy Hunt followed the rules. But the trouble is the closeness to Murdoch before he took on the quasi-judicial role. We have got to wait for Jeremy Hunt to make his statement, wait for the questioning of it. Damian Collins, a Conservative MP who sits on the Commons culture select committee which is investigating phone hacking, defended Mr Hunt and questioned the reliability of the email evidence. A lot of the emails, we have to be careful. Is this Fred Michel sort of beefing up what he knew and what he had been told to impress his boss?" he said. Crucially, he took the advice of the independent regulator. Had he ignored their advice and taken a different path sympathetic to News Corporation, that would be a very different matter. But he didn't. He scrupulously followed it and he published it so we could see what the advice was. Lord Fowler said the PR man appeared to have been "over-egging the pudding, to put it mildly."