1.11pm: It‘s 1pm and high time for a mid-blog recap on what has, so far, been a relatively slow-moving day by the standards of this story.

• Nick Clegg has backed David Cameron over the PM‘s contacts with News International during the BSkyB bid process, but stressed the Lib Dems‘ different views on links with the Murdoch empire. The current crisis is „a once-in-a-generation opportunity to really clean up the murky practices, the dodgy relationships which have taken root at the very heart of the British establishment“, he added.

• Andy Coulson‘s successor, Craig Oliver, has refused to say whether he has undergone a more stringent security vetting than Coulson‘s mid-level checks. A series of readers who have been through civil service vetting themselves have been in touch to say they are astonished that Coulson, a man working at the heart of Downing Street, was not vetted more thoroughly.