Hunt quizzed over text to Murdoch Jeremy Hunt sent James Murdoch a text hours before he assumed a quasi-judicial role in the UK's largest media bid, congratulating the man leading it for successfully getting over a regulatory hurdle. He added that the bid now had "only Ofcom to go" before it could proceed. The culture secretary said he would not have sent the text had he known he was going to get the role. He rejected the idea, however, that he should have told government lawyers considering whether to appoint him that he had made a private statement showing bias towards News Corp's proposal to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting. Mr Hunt is fighting for his political life on Thursday at the Leveson inquiry, where he is facing intense questioning on whether he was too close and too sympathetic to the Murdoch media group. A damaging series of revelations centred on Mr Hunt's behaviour on one dramatic day just before Christmas 2010. On December 21 that year, the European Commission, which could have blocked the £8.3bn proposal on competition grounds, said it would not do so. At the time, only Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, could have placed obstructions in its way after Vince Cable, the business secretary with legal responsibility for overseeing the process, asked it to consider plurality issues. Mr Hunt's text message, sent that morning to Mr Murdoch read: "Congratulations on Brussels. Only Ofcom to go. Hours later, the BBC revealed that Mr Cable had shown apparent bias against News Corp by telling undercover reporters posing as constituents that he had "declared war against [Rupert] Murdoch" over the proposed bid and expected to win. Mr Hunt heard about this mid-afternoon on December 21, he told the inquiry. Almost immediately, at 4pm, he had received a phone call from a furious James Murdoch who told him Mr Cable's words showed "acute bias" and called into question the whole regulatory process. The culture secretary texted George Osborne, the chancellor, at 4.08 saying he was concerned that Mr Cable's indiscretion meant that he was "seriously worried we are going to screw this up." Robert Jay QC questioned Mr Hunt closely over his "only Ofcom to go" text. He asked whether - with government lawyers deciding at that moment to strip Mr Cable of his authority - he should have told them of his favourable view of the bid. "To put it bluntly, Mr Hunt, Mr Cable had just lost the role through the appearance of bias in one direction," Mr Jay said. Doesn't it follow that you shouldn't have received the role for the equal and opposite reason? Mr Hunt denied that the decision to appoint him had been reached "overhastily" and because he had not told them of his own examples of apparent bias. Mr Hunt said the "quasi-judicial" nature of the role meant that he should put aside his views and be absolutely scrupulous in ensuring the bid was treated equitably, which he said he had then done. Earlier, Mr Hunt had conceded that he had tried to intervene with Mr Cable after hearing from Mr Murdoch that News Corp thought they were not getting a fair hearing. He accepted that this had not been right because he had not understood the "quasi-judicial" nature of the role at that time. Asked if it was true that his language, expressed in documents exhibited to the Leveson inquiry, was supportive of the bid. I was sympathetic to the bid. I hesitate to use the word supportive," he said.