Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Estate. Should the relevant party take office, the Shadow Secretary would be a likely candidate to become Culture Secretary. The post became necessary when John Major created the Department of National Heritage in 1992. When the Coalition Government took office, they merged the office of Culture Secretary with that of Minister for the Olympics (Jeremy Hunt had shadowed both roles in Opposition). Labour retained as its Olympics spokesperson Tessa Jowell, who had been Olympics Minister from the inception of the office. Because it never merged the responsibilities, it has retained the name "Culture, Olympics and Sport" (as has indeed the
News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB days later, with the News of the World phone hacking scandal exploding, Ofcom intervened, saying that it has "a duty to be satisfied on an ongoing basis that the holder of a broadcasting licence is 'fit and proper'". It was in the wake of the Milly Dowler phone hacking allegations that a significant number of people, including former deputy prime minister John Prescott and other politicians, began to seriously question whether the takeover of BSkyB by News Corporation ought to be blocked. The Media Standards Trust formed the pressure group "Hacked Off," to campaign for a public inquiry. Soon after