Cameron urges editors to act quickly

David Cameron will this week urge newspaper editors to get their act together and create a powerful independent press regulator, amid continuing political pressure for him to introduce a press law.

The prime minister will meet editors on Tuesday following what is expected to be an emotional Commons debate on Monday on the Leveson report into press ethics.

“The PM doesn’t want to legislate but he thinks the onus is on the industry to act pretty sharpish,” said one aide to Mr Cameron. “We have had a lot of indications that the industry is prepared to take it very seriously.”

Mr Cameron’s opposition to legislation to underpin a new independent regulator was given a boost on Sunday when Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the civil liberties group, said she did not agree with compulsory regulation.

“Leveson doesn’t want compulsory regulation of the press, but he says if they don’t play ball, the politicians may have to consider it,” she told the BBC. “That’s where I get off the bus.”

Mr Cameron hopes that the newspaper industry will provide him with vital political cover by voluntarily introducing Lord Justice Leveson’s proposals for a tough independent regulator, able to impose heavy fines and demand corrections.

But his position will come under attack in the Commons debate on Monday, in which Labour will claim that the prime minister is bowing to pressure from press barons.

Ed Miliband, Labour leader, on Sunday set Mr Cameron a Christmas deadline for signing up to a press law or, he said, he would break off cross-party talks on implementing Leveson.

If not, Labour hopes to create a coalition of MPs from across party lines to demand statutory underpinning for the press regulator, which he would mobilise in a Commons vote in the new year.

Harriet Harman, shadow culture secretary, is to ask legal experts to draft a press bill, which could form the basis of a vote in January. She contests Tory claims that such a bill would be complex and could run to a dozen pages with annexes.

Although a defeat for Mr Cameron at the hands of Labour, Liberal Democrat and some Tory MPs would be highly embarrassing, the prime minister retains control of the parliamentary timetable and could not be forced to bring in press legislation.

There remains little prospect of the prime minister changing his mind and acceding to a press bill; to do so would make him look weak and create a furious backlash from the Tory press.