British PM faces battle on several fronts

British Prime Minister David Cameron faces fresh scrutiny over his dealings with senior News International figures as his Conservative Party comes to terms with it worst poll results in eight years.

The Sunday Times reported that former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who is implicated in the phone-hacking scandal, is prepared to hand over text messages and emails between herself and Mr Cameron to the Leveson inquiry.

Mr Cameron's government came under renewed pressure last week following revelations of the cosy relationship between cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt's office and Rupert Murdoch's media empire over the failed BSkyB takeover bid.

The evidence at the media ethics inquiry led to the resignation of Mr Hunt's special adviser, Adam Smith.

Mr Cameron said there was "no grand deal" done with the Murdochs over the bid for the pay-TV company in return for their newspapers' support in the lead-up to the 2010 election.

"It would be absolutely wrong for there to be any sort of deal and there wasn't," he said.

"There was no grand deal."

Mr Cameron conceded the regular contact between Mr Smith and News Corporation's head of public affairs Frederic Michel had not been right.

"There's absolutely no doubt that the contact between the special adviser in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and News International, that was too close, too frequent and that's why their special adviser resigned, and that was the right thing to do," he said.

News International is the parent company of The Sunday Times.

A YouGov poll found that support for the Conservatives had slumped to 29 per cent, the lowest levels since 2004 with the Labour Party sitting at 40 per cent. Those numbers came on top of news last week that Britain had slipped back into recession.

That Ms Brooks is willing to release copies of communications with Mr Cameron is certain to ramp up the pressure within Downing Street.

Ms Brooks was arrested for a second time last month as part of Operation Weeting - the police investigation into phone hacking.

Mr Cameron said he was prepared to order an investigation into Mr Hunt's conduct after the Culture and Olympics Secretary's evidence was made public.

A senior Tory MP called on Sir Alex Allan, the independent adviser on the ministerial code, to rule on whether Mr Hunt had a case to answer.

In a sign of the deepening divisions within Britain's coalition government, the Liberal Democrats privately called for Chancellor George Osborne to appear before Leveson after it emerged he met with James Murdoch during the BSkyB bid process.

"These meetings were at a very sensitive time. Osborne had no right to be involved and should go before Leveson to explain," a Liberal Democrats source said.

It follows the contemptuous body language Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg directed towards Mr Hunt as he tried to distance himself from the controversy in parliament last week.

Photo: David Cameron (Getty Images)