David Miliband has won Labour backing for a new project touring British university and college campuses in a move which will be widely seen as marking a tentative rapprochement with his brother Ed.

The unofficial role is David’s first for the party since he was defeated by his younger brother in last year’s race for the Labour leadership, after which he decided not to take part in the shadow cabinet elections.

The two brothers were expected to appear on a podium together in March for the launch of “Movement for Change”, a leftwing volunteer movement, but that occasion never took place.

Aides played down the idea that David Miliband’s new project represented a major “ambassador” role for the former foreign secretary, who still has the support of some Blairite Labour MPs. University policy remains the preserve of Gareth Thomas, shadow minister for higher education and science.

A flurry of letters released just now by the DCMS committee, which has also agreed to write to five potential witnesses – including James Murdoch – as I predicted last night. Perhaps the most interesting letter is from Louise Mensch, the Tory MP, who has apologised to Piers Morgan for her “error” on July 19.

“I wrongly stated that Piers Morgan, formerly editor of the Daily Mirror, had been open about personally hacking phones in a book he wrote. This was based on my misreading of an article in the Daily Telegraph,” says the letter, written on July 29 (today).

Continue reading: “Louise Mensch apologises to Piers Morgan”

My understanding is that the Culture, Media and Sport committee will meet tomorrow to discuss whether to summon up to five witnesses to Parliament to be questioned – of which three would be recalls.

The committee, chaired by John Whittingdale, will consider whether to bring back James Murdoch, Colin Myler and Tom Crone for further quizzing.

Myler, former editor of News of the World, and Crone, former legal manager, both issued a statement last week contradicting Murdoch’s evidence to the committee. They said they had told him about an email showing evidence of wider hacking by other journalists.

My understanding is that the committee will also consider whether to invite Jon Chapman  to answer questions for the first time. Chapman, ex-director of legal affairs at News International, has said that there were “serious inaccuracies in statements made (by others) to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee”. The MPs also have questions for law firm Harbottle & Lewis.

The committee is meeting on Friday ostensibly for a press conference publicising its latest report, into British sport. But the more pressing issue of Hackanory- and recent

The Guardian is reporting that Sara Payne is “devastated” at news that she may have been hacked by the News of the World. Payne, whose daughter Sarah was murdered, was close to the newspaper for years – which pressed hard for a “Sarah’s Law” to reveal the location of paedophiles. This looks set to explode “Hacking gate” once more.

Payne even wrote a positive valedictory in the final edition of the NotW. As Tom Watson says: “The last edition of the News of the World made great play of the paper’s relationship with the Payne family.”

UPDATE: Payne’s phone number was amid the paperwork of Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective used by the newspaper. Brooks has denied that anyone at NotW would have known if he or anyone else was targeting Payne: ‘Sara Payne is a dear friend. The idea that anyone knew she was targeted by Glenn Mulcaire is unthinkable‘.

A small but significant piece of good news for Labour, buried in the back of its annual report, published today.

The party’s pension fund had been sagging under a deficit of £6.6m, which may sound tiny until you remember that Labour only employs 287 staff (up from 226 a year before).

Even now, the accounts admit that a “further increase in employer contributions” may be necessary to address any persistent scheme deficits.

But the snapshot of Labour’s pension fund taken at the end of 2010 shows it with net assets of £19,000 – which will be a great relief to many.

The shift from red to black has been largely inspired by the government’s change last summer from RPI to CPI inflation on pension increases for public sector staff. Labour, although obviously a private organisation, has followed suit.

That means expected lower rises in pension payments in the future. According to Labour, “the overall impact of this is a reduction of £4.2m in the value of the defined benefit obligations“.

The bad news for Labour employees, and former employees: Your pensions will now rise more slowly than they would have done beforehand.

UPDATE: Not so long ago that senior Labour figures were criticising the original RPI-CPI switch, as Guido points out, with Ed Balls calling it part of the “biggest hit to the living standards of your (GMB) members in a generation”. (Although Balls was also referring to other things including later retirement; cuts to childcare support; the abolition of the youth jobs fund; and higher tuition fees).

William Hague is hosting a press conference on Libya this very minute at the Foreign Office, amid concerns that the campaign is bogged down in what America’s Admiral Mike Mullen has called a “stalemate“.

This was not what David Cameron expected earlier in the year, when the prime minister – caught up by the excitement of the Arab Spring – privately anticipated a more decisive action.

Instead, the general spirit was in line with Lord Copper’s advice (in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Scoop) where the newspaper proprietor outlines his policy for a war in the (fictional) north African country of Ishmaelia.

“A few sharp victories, some conspicuous acts of personal bravery on the Patriot side and a colourful entry into the capital. That is The Beast policy

Continue reading: “Hague under pressure over Libya campaign”

James Murdoch with Tony Blair

Tony Blair has been talking for the first time since the hacking scandal erupted three weeks ago about his relationship with the Murdoch family, something that has been much criticised in the Commons recently.

Speaking at a press conference in Australia, of all places, Blair said:

Look, let’s be honest about it. The problem is when you’re a political leader, never mind a prime minister, you get your message across, you have to get your message across, through you guys [journalists], so whatever I say today the whole of the public’s not going to be watching every word I say. What happens is you will write about it, or you’ll put it on your television and you know, therefore of course it’s going to matter to have relationships with people in the media.

But I think one thing that is very important is to try and get those relationships right in the sense that the media is an important part of our democracy, on the other hand governments should govern for the public interest.

The ONS has blamed one-off events for low GDP figures – 0.2 per cent growth – in the second quarter. Britain is a “safe haven in the storm” at a time of real international instability, George Osborne said. We have seen the first draft of his speech.

“……And I take great reassurance that in a sea of financial disaster, surrounded by the shattered fiscal remains of Greece, Italy, Iceland and Portugal, our great nation is nothing less than a safe haven of economic growth. A rock, no less. For sure, that growth is less exceptional than it would have been, due to several one-off factors.

The weather was slightly too cold at the start of the year and a bit too warm later on; and quite windy as well. The tragic events in Japan have undermined our crucial supply chains. And the Royal Family have only themselves to blame by organising a wedding – instigating an economically disruptive Bank Holiday – at such a sensitive time.

I could point the finger elsewhere. Lady Gaga went on tour during the spring, which kept a significant number of productive units away from their desks. Nick Clegg indulged in a five-day visit to Brazil, when he could have been marshalling the forces of economic activity back home. It has reached my attention that the plots in Coronation Street have been sub-standard of late.

There were the wrong types of leaves on the line. And the dog ate my homework.”

The FT reported last night that Trinity Mirror, owner of the Daily Mirror newspaper, has launched a review of its editorial controls and procedures amid investor anxiety that phone-hacking allegations could spread beyond the now-defunct News of the World.

“We have to check whether any regulations and controls are dysfunctional and whether bad practice has set in,” said a senior Trinity employee, who declined to be named. “We also need … to ensure that the provenance of stories is understood at senior editorial levels.”

The share price fell by almost 10 per cent yesterday and has slid further today – although bear in mind the context that it also rose sharply last Friday. (UPDATE: We weren’t the first to notice the share price tumbling).