24 hours to fire the Minister for Murdoch

Dear friends across the UK,

Jeremy Hunt is stubbornly clinging to power after a mountain of evidence has emerged showing how he helped the Murdochs with their BSkyB bid. Tomorrow he'll be at the Leveson Inquiry. If we now raise our voices, we can force David Cameron to clean up his government by firing the Minister for Murdoch. Sign the petition:

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt schemed with the Murdochs to help them win the BSkyB deal. So far he's just ditched his adviser, but we can get him to go, too, if we raise our voices before he appears at the Leveson Inquiry tomorrow.

Hunt was dubbed 'Minister for Murdoch' after a deluge of documents published by the Leveson Inquiry revealed how he and his staff sent chummy messages to Murdoch's lobbyist over the crucial months of the BSkyB deal.  Calls are echoing from across the political spectrum for Hunt to leave office, and David Cameron is considering whether Hunt can remain in his government. Our outcry now can make the difference.

Tomorrow Hunt will testify at Leveson. Let's take another massive step to end the crooked collusion between our government and the Murdoch Mafia. Sign the urgent petition to remove Hunt, which we'll deliver with an action outside the Inquiry, and send this to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fire_jeremy_hunt_3/?vl

Hunt was supposed to judge the BSkyB takeover in an independent, quasi-judicial manner. But hundreds of pages of internal News Corp emails and texts released by the Leveson Inquiry show regular correspondence between News Corp and Hunt’s office. The emails show Hunt "shared [News Corp's] objectives" and sent confidential drafts of key statements to News Corp before making them public -- a move News Corp itself says was "absolutely illegal".

Hunt also wrote to the Prime Minister to promote the BSkyB takeover. Despite the clear conflict of interest and lack of professionalism, Downing Street is digging in and backing Hunt. With former Tory minister David Mellor now joining the crescendo of calls for Hunt to go, Cameron knows he faces a vital test of his government's credibility. Our massive public outcry can persuade him to get rid of Hunt this week.

Hunt has shown he isn't fit for his role and can't be trusted. He thinks he can blame his underlings and battle on, and it’s up to us to prove him wrong. Join the urgent call, which we'll deliver via the media with an eye-catching stunt at Leveson on Thursday. Click below and forward to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fire_jeremy_hunt_3/?vl

Together, we helped scrap the Murdoch Mafia’s bid for BSkyB last summer,and Murdoch's lobbyist recognised our community's power in an email released to the Leveson Inquiry. Now let's clean up our dirty politics.

With hope and determination,

Alex, Brant, Allison, Luis, Alice, Ricken, Emma, and the rest of the Avaaz team

Sources:

Mellor calls for Hunt to quit (Telegraph)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9293447/Jeremy-Hunt-will-quit-says-David-Mellor.html

News Corp email: "key for him [Hunt] to find a way to weaken Avaaz campaign's arguments" (PDF file)
http://avaazbackup.s3.amazonaws.com/000NewsEmailAvaaz.pdf

Jeremy Hunt faces calls to resign over BSkyB claims (Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/24/jeremy-hunt-calls-resign-bskyb?newsfeed=true

Jeremy Hunt ‘should quit’ over News Corp claims (ITV)
http://www.itv.com/news/2012-04-24/james-murdoch-on-phone-hacking-at-the-news-of-the-world-at-the-leveson-inquiry/

Is this the end for Jeremy Hunt?
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/end-jeremy-hunt

Jeremy Hunt and the Murdochs: how minister oiled wheels of BSkyB bid (Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/24/jeremy-hunt-murdochs-bskyb-bid

Hunt, BSkyB and a damning memo to Mr Cameron (Daily Mail)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2149438/Leveson-Inquiry-David-Cameron-knew-Jeremy-Hunt-backed-Rupert-Murdochs-BSkyB-bid.html