Jeremy Hunt lunches with editors at Press Gazette

Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt took a break from general election door-stepping to drop into Press Gazette’s London offices yesterday to have lunch with some of Fleet Street’s top editors.

He spoke about Conservative Party media policy and briefed editors with his views on the election campaign so far.

The discussion was off the record, but editors clearly have views about the reasons for the recent downturn in Conservative poll ratings, Tory plans to liberalise local media ownership rules and whether the Conservatives could continue to support first-past-the-past in the event of an election result where the Lib Dems could win the popular vote but come third in terms of number of seats.

Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford: “Some 44 years after Press Gazette was launched in offices off Fleet Street we returned to London’s historic journalism district after being bought by Progressive Media in April. It was great to host so many editors and top national press executives proving that we are also still at the heart of the British journalism industry.”

Those attending were: Financial Times editor Lionel Barber, Daily Mail managing editor Charles Garside, The Times editor James Harding, Independent on Sunday editor John Mullin, The Observer editor John Mulholland, Daily Telegraph head of news Chris Evans, Daily Star Sunday editor Gareth Thomas, Conservative Party shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, Sunday Times focus editor Alan Hunter, New Statesman publisher Spencer Neal. From Press Gazette: editor Dominic Ponsford, news editor Oliver Luft, head of sales Matt Dowsett, press columnist (and former Daily Mirror editor) David Banks.