By Daily Mail Reporter
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David Cameron’s aides will pore over his text messages to Rebekah Brooks this week amid fears he will be embarrassed by fresh revelations about his links to the Murdoch empire.
The Prime Minister, with his lawyers and special advisers, have set up a unit to study the texts to the former News of the World editor to search for ‘landmines’.
No 10 is braced for a difficult week since Mrs Brooks and Andy Coulson â€" who resigned as News of the World editor over phone hacking and went on to become Mr Cameron’s communications director â€" will both be giving evidence to Lord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into press standards.
Giving evidence: Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, left, and former editor of News of the World Andy Coulson, right, are due to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into the phone hacking scandal
Difficult week: Correspondence between the Prime Minister David Cameron with Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson could be revealed this week
It has been claimed that Mr Cameron was so close to Mrs Brooks that he texted her up to a dozen times a day â€" and that Mrs Brooks has kept all the communications.
Mr Cameron and Mrs Brooks are said to sign-off some of their text messages to intimate friends with the friendly ‘x’ preferred by many habitual phone texters.
If they did so in messages to each other, it could add to the Government’s growing discomfort over the Leveson disclosures.
According to some sources, Mr Cameron sent text messages of support to Mrs Brooks and her husband, race-horse trainer Charlie Brooks, before she was forced to resign over the phone-hacking affair.
Mrs Brooks is expected to be asked about her relations with politicians and senior police officers when she appears before Lord Leveson on Friday.
She could also be pressed over Mr Cameron’s admission that he had ridden a horse loaned to Mrs Brooks by the Metropolitan Police.
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is facing questions about the nature of his relationship with the Murdoch empire
Mr Coulson gives evidence to Lord Leveson on Thursday. The inquiry’s lawyers will not be able to question Brooks or Coulson about anything that could prejudice the continuing police investigation into phone hacking. Both have been arrested and bailed.
It has also been revealed by the Independent newspaper that Andy Coulson held share in News Corporation while he was David Cameron's head of communications at Downing Street when the Government was deciding whether to approve the company's takeover of BSkyB.
Mr Coulson was given the shares when he resigned as editor of News of the World over the phone hacking scandal in 2007 - meaning he stood to gain financially if News Corporation secured the takeover.
Mr Cameron and seven other Cabinet Ministers will be given advance sight of witness statements from Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson after successfully winning ‘core participant’ status at an emergency hearing on Friday.
This latest worry for the Prime Minister comes hot on the heels of the Jeremy Hunt scandal.
According to The Independent on Sunday, David Cameron agreed to a meeting with one of Rupert Murdoch' senior executives, that was arranged by the lobbyist now at the centre of the scandal.
Jeremy Hunt's culture secretary has already had to step down over emails sent from the same senior executive Frederic Michel about a BSkyB contract he was overseeing at the time.
Mr Michel set up the meet in 2009 between the Prime Minister and Jose Maria Aznar, the former Prime Minister of Spain, and a member of New Corporation's board.
His involvement in the meeting - that came just weeks after The Sun switched its support from Labour to Conservatives - brings into doubts claims by Mr Hunt and that Prime Minister that he is just a lobbyist.
The meeting further demonstrates the Prime Mi nster's close relationship with the Murdochs and members of their organisations.
But a Number 10 spokesman told the newspaper: 'All contact with News International and News Corp has been declared in the correct way. The Prime Minister has had no inappropriate discussions about the BSkyB bid either as Prime Minister or before.'
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Is another cover up imminent?
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Cameron is a long time friend of Charlie Brooks - Rebekah Brooks's husband, Cameron has known him way before he knew Rebekah. Brooks developed close relationships with both Tony Blair and Cameron, and you have to ask why? Cameron has been manipulated, it's as simple as that. He's been a complete idiot and very naeve. Politicians have been very frightened off what Murdoch's press organisation might do if they didn't tow the line and do what Murdochs' newspapers wanted. The stranglehold that Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, Rebekak Brooks and a succession of Murdhoch's newspaper editors have had on the Police, policitians, ministers (current and ex) and the governement in office at the time is now being broken.
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Mike Williams. Southampton 15.08. "Never has such corruption and GAUL been so open by any government" ? Gaul was a region which was part of Europe in Roman times - what has that got to do with our government. Or could it be that the word you are groping for should be "gall" ?
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Do right and fear no man, don't write and fear no woman.
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How come these people arent all inside????
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I feel his pain and torment, don't you (The forensics don't lie, politicians do that) Interesting times ahead.
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If you really want to know what's been going on by all the parties in the hacking scandal: from the private investigators commissioned by the journalists at NOTW, from coverup by the chief executives, the lies they told, from Coulson to Brooks, to both her and her husbands friendship with Cameron to the expensive dinners between senior Police officers and the bullying, the corruption of the police and the influence Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks had on British politics - both Labour and Tory - you only have to read the book by Tom Watson MP, "Dial M For Murdoch", he's one of the MPs at the heart of the investigations by Parliament. The far reaching influence of Murdoch and his organisation permeating right the way through British politics is quite incredible. They tried very hard to cover it up, but it is all coming out. And the revenge that Brooks repeatedly sought when people didn't co-operate in the way she wanted by publishing completely untrue storie s in her papers to damage them.
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Whether or not Dave found time to text Rebekah constantly says one thing . It shows just how the Tories with his background opperate. It's not what you know it's who you know. This is how they get their places at university and how they get their jobs. Parents know this and it's why they spend more than the average wage on one years school fees for their children. Cameron got his first job at Tory HQ after a call from the Palace. They just have to have the right connections and they are trained from an early age to stick together. It has worked throughout history to give the wealthy minority their power and is exactly why they are so oppose to union members using the same tactics. It will be interesting to see what Coulson says after all he isn't part of the old Etonian network
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Cannot wait to see that smug smile wiped off your face Dave. I reckon it could be the doghouse when Sam hears Becky sing.
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Basically, under Cameron's leadership, not only is BSskyB still out of Murdoch's reach, but also an inquiry has been set up to deal with the phone-hacking claims, in which government ministers are willing to answer questions. (Facts that could not have been associated with any of the previous Labour governments.) So, in this context, what is the relevance of who Cameron's buddies are and how tightly he embraces them?
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