Cameron warns ‘clock is ticking’ on Press reform

The Prime Minister demanded urgent action at a meeting with leading industry figures in Downing Street to discuss their response to the Leveson Report on ethics and standards.

Editors will meet again tomorrow in a bid to agree proposals sufficiently independent and robust to persuade politicians and the public that legislation is not required to curb future abuses.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller said she expected them to come up with a process and timetable within two days – amid suggestions that detailed proposals could be ready within a fortnight.

But Labour leader Ed Miliband, who wants the Leveson proposals implemented in full, said “good intentions” would not satisfy victims of phone hacking and other intrusions.

Mr Cameron has expressed “serious concerns and misgivings” about resorting to any form of statutory underpinning for press regulation, as called for by Lord Justice Leveson.

With Labour and the Liberal Democrats united in favour, his own backbenches split and phone-hacking victims fronting a public campaign for full implementation, he is under huge pressure.

Mrs Miller, who led the talks at Number 10, renewed a warning to editors at the talks that legislation would be the “only option” left to ministers if media chiefs failed to act quickly.

She said the press had “responded positively” to the challenge but had to take responsibility for coming up with a credible alternative.

The editor of the London Evening Standard, Sarah Sands, said they were “talking about a couple of weeks to try to come up with a solution that really satisfies everybody”.

Independent editor Chris Blackhurst said there was “movement” across Fleet Street towards an agreement on making the new body fully independent of serving editors. There was unanimity that it would need the teeth proposed by Leveson, he said, such as the power to levy £1m fines, to launch investigations and direct the size and prominence of apologies.

And the industry recognised the need to return the “favour” done by Mr Cameron in resisting statutory regulation, he told Sky News.

Lloyd Embley, editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People, said there was “a firm belief that papers can deliver Leveson principles far more quickly without legislation”.

That would be “better for public and free speech”, he posted on Twitter.

Mr Blackhurst joked about the reception the industry got at Number 10, saying his bottom was too sore to sit down on after being “well and truly spanked” by Mr Cameron.

Daily Telegraph editor Tony Gallagher likened the meeting to “the summoning of the Five Families in The Godfather”.

Officials at Mrs Miller’s Culture Department are drawing up a draft Bill to enact Leveson’s recommendations in full.

But she has indicated that she expects it to provide confirmation of concerns about the complexity and potential negative impact on press freedom.

Labour is drawing up its own draft legislation to demonstrate that Leveson’s recommendations could be implemented without the difficulties feared by ministers.

The opposition’s Bill is expected to be completed before Christmas, paving the way for Labour to force a Commons vote by the end of January if no agreement is reached in cross-party talks.

As the editors met at Number 10, Mr Miliband hosted talks in his office with representatives of the Hacked Off campaign group, including phone-hacking victims.

“What I heard from the victims of sections of the Press is that they are pleased there are good intentions from the editors but they want more than good intentions,” he said. “They want the force of law to make sure those good intentions are turned into reality.”

He said he did not doubt the goodwill of the editors to reform, “but we have no guarantee that that goodwill and those good words are actually going to mean something on an ongoing basis”.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is opposed to Mr Cameron’s stance, said he hoped “gridlock” could be avoided in the continuing cross-party talks.

Speaking on a visit to a school alongside Mr Cameron, he said: “We owe it to the victims to be able to say to them, ‘Look, we’ve got a solution and this won’t happen again’.”