Leveson Inquiry: Andy Coulson's background "no guarantee of News International support" for Tories Published on Thursday 10 May 2012 17:25 DAVID Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards today that his background at News International would not be a key to support for the Conservatives. Asked whether he had made such promises to the Prime Minister or Chancellor George Osborne, Mr Coulson said: "I do remember explaining that my News International background should not therefore be seen as some sort of guarantee of the support of either of those papers." "I'm not sure that David Cameron ever said to me "Have we got the News of the World in the bag, Andy?." I think this is a conversation that I introduced. Mr Coulson said they had tried to talk to as many newspapers as possible, as the Tories had an "electoral mountain" to climb. He said Mr Cameron had a "family connection" with former News International executive Mrs Brooks. She was his constituent. Charlie Brooks is a constituent of his, so they lived relatively close to his constituency home but there was, I think, a fairly long historic family connection. As it happened: Andy Coulson at the Leveson Inquiry Mr Coulson also said that the Prime Minister had not sought any further assurances over his links to the phone-hacking scandal after July 2009, despite allegations about legal pay-offs for victims starting to emerge. "Not that I can recall," Mr Coulson said when asked if Mr Cameron had enquired about his links to the burgeoning scandal being reported in The Guardian at the time. Mr Coulson was asked about Mr Cameron's admission last July that politicians and the media had become "too close." The former journalist said the Premier had not expressed similar regret in private before that. "I don't remember him doing so," he said. Questioned on whether he had seen any contacts he regarded as too close, Mr Coulson responded: "I look at it from the perspective of whether or not there were improper conversations. I never saw a conversation, was party to a conversation, that to my mind was inappropriate in that way. He said he was not involved in the News Corp BSkyB bid "in any way, shape or form," and could not remember dealing with communications issues from it, except the Daily Telegraph's revelation that Business Secretary Vince Cable suggested he was "going to war" on Mr Murdoch. Mr Coulson said it had been his decision to resign from the News of the World in 2007. "When I went to see (News International executive chairman) Les Hinton I was very clear that I was going to resign and I did so," he said. In his witness statement, Mr Coulson also described a meeting with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2006. The then-chancellor told him he had it on "very good authority" that Rupert Murdoch was planning to make him editor of The Sun when Ms Brooks was promoted. I came away thinking it was an attempt by Mr Brown to impress on me his closeness to Rupert Murdoch. I didn't believe it," he said. Mr Coulson dismissed rumours that he kept a potentially explosive diary of his time in the job at Number 10. Asked by Robert Jay QC, counsel for the inquiry, whether he had kept a diary between 2007 and his departure from Downing Street in 2010, Mr Coulson replied that he had not. However, he did say there were "notes that I would take in the course of my work both in opposition and in government." Mr Coulson said during his time as editor of the News of the World, the newspaper supported the Labour Party. In a written statement, he said in the run-up to the election he met with Conservative politicians including Dr Liam Fox, David Davis, Oliver Letwin, Alan Duncan and Michael Howard, but the decision was taken that the newspaper would continue to support Labour. "A key factor in the decision was I felt that News of the World readers" interests would be best served by Tony Blair."