George Eustice, who was the Member of Parliament for Camborne and Redruth from 2010 to 2024, has been joined the Board of Hacked Off, the campaign for a free an accountable press .

As an MP Mr Eustice was a Minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for seven years, and then joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for a further two and a half year period.

Before becoming an MP he was Press Secretary to both Lord Howard and Lord Cameron during their tenures as Leaders of the Conservative Party.

As a backbench Member of Parliament Mr Eustice was an effective campaigner for independent press regulation as recommended in the Leveson Report.  He organised other supporters on the Conservative benches, advocated for the Leveson system in his spoken contributions in Parliament, and tabled amendments to incentivise newspapers to comply.

Commenting on his appointment to the Board, Mr Eustice said,

“David Cameron commissioned Lord Justice Leveson to make recommendations on how to improve press accountability and the Royal Charter for the Self-Regulation of the Press was a way of implementing those recommendations without needing a regulator established in statute.

“The failure of newspapers to participate in the compromise that they themselves helped to design is deeply regrettable. It means that alternative steps will now be required to improve accountability and safeguard the public interest. I look forward to supporting Hacked Off in this important work.”

Hacked Off Chairman Hugh Tomlinson KC said,

“Politicians with the courage to stand up to the power of the press are rare.  Yet during his time in Parliament George repeatedly advocated on behalf of the victims of press abuse; facing down both press hostility and the objections of his own party colleagues.

“We are delighted he has now agreed to join the Board.

“George’s experience as a former Secretary of State will be invaluable as we prepare for a critical period of engagement with the new Government which – although of a different political stripe – is showing a familiar reticence to pursue policy which would see the press held properly to account.”

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