Prime minister says never 'had one inappropriate conversation' in relation to Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB bid

The prime minister has refused to deny that he discussed the BSkyB bid with senior executives at News International since the election.

Repeatedly pressed on the issue following a Commons statement on the phone- hacking scandal, David Cameron would only say: "I have never had one inappropriate conversation."

But he said he was considering permanently removing governments from media takeover deals, following the phone-hacking scandal and its impact on News Corp's plans to buy the remaining 61% of BSkyB it does not already own.

Cameron made his comments at the end of a session that lasted more than two hours and saw him answer questions from 136 MPs after delivering a statement in which he vowed to "clear up the mess" from the hacking scandal.

The prime minister – who was repeatedly pressed on whether the BSkyB bid came up in discussions in meetings he had with senior News International figures – would only say: "I have never had one inappropriate conversation."

As a session punctuated by at least eight further questions on this point neared its end, he told MPs: "It may be the case that we should take politicians out of all decisions about media mergers altogether."

Cameron was first asked whether the bid was raised in any of his meetings with News Corp figures – and whether he discussed it with the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt – by Labour's Ed Miliband in a flurry of questions in response to a Commons statement on the phone hacking scandal.

But Cameron told the Labour leader to "stop punting feeble conspiracy theories and start rising to the level of events".

He told MPs there had been no "inappropriate conversation" – pointing to the fact that Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, had said the same thing to the culture select committee on Tuesday.

Labour's Barry Gardiner later asked him whether this meant he had had "appropriate" conversations during some of the 26 listed meetings he had with senior figures at News International.

Cameron replied: "All my conversations are appropriate."

The prime minister told MPs his cabinet secretary had ruled "very clearly" that no ministerial code was broken in relation to the BSkyB merger and meetings with News International executives.

"The cabinet secretary has ruled very clearly that the code was not broken – not least because I had asked to be entirely excluded from the decision."

He added: "I had no responsibility for the BSkyB takeover. I specifically asked to be taken out of any of the decision making and any of the information because I didn't want to put myself in any sort of compromising position.

"I was very clear about that, so much so that I didn't even know when many of the key announcements were being made."

The issues that have surfaced over the phone-hacking scandal provoked heated exchanges as Labour grilled Cameron on the details surrounding Tory links with News International, while the Conservatives sought to highlight Labour's own track record with the company, and their own inaction in office, as well as Miliband's decision to recruit Tom Baldwin, a former journalist from the News International stable, as his press chief.

Cameron expressed regret at hiring Andy Coulson as his own director of communications in light of the "furore" that has ensued, and said he would be ready to issue a "profound apology" if it turned out he had been misled by Coulson, whom he has described as a friend.

He defended the decision of his chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, to refuse a police briefing on the hacking investigation as "entirely appropriate", and insisted he learned only three days ago that Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World, had advised Coulson before the general election.

In his most contrite comments to date over the controversial decision to take the former editor of the News of the World with him to Downing Street, Cameron told MPs that if it turned out Coulson had lied to him about whether he knew about phone hacking at the now defunct tabloid, he would not hesitate in issuing a "profound apology".

While he believed everyone to be innocent until proven guilty, he added that if Coulson – who quit Downing Street in January – had lied, he would have lied not just to him, but the police, select committees, the press watchdog and the courts, and could expect to face "severe criminal charges".

He added: "On the decision to hire him, I believe I have answered every question about this. It was my decision. I take responsibility. People will, of course, make judgments about it.

"Of course I regret [it] and I am extremely sorry about the furore it has caused.

"With 20:20 hindsight – and all that has followed – I would not have offered him the job and I expect that he wouldn't have taken it.

"But you don't make decisions in hindsight; you make them in the present. You live and you learn – and believe you me, I have learnt."

Miliband later fired back: "It's not about hindsight. It is not about whether Mr Coulson lied to him. It is about all the information that the prime minister ignored."

Miliband claimed Llewellyn turned down the offer of a police briefing because Cameron was "hamstrung by a conflict of interest" and said he made a deliberate attempt to avoid the truth about Coulson.

"The prime minister was caught in a conflict of loyalty … He made the wrong choice. He chose to stick with Mr Coulson," he said.

"Can he now explain why he failed to act on clear information and why those around him built a wall of silence around the prime minister?"

Miliband also accused Cameron of putting Sir Paul Stephenson, the outgoing Met police commissioner who quit on Sunday, in an "impossible position", because Stephenson could not warn Cameron about Neil Wallis. This contributed to Stephenson's decision to resign, he said.

Miliband's questions prompted an angry Cameron to tell him "to stop punting feeble conspiracy theories" as he claimed Labour had been just as close to the Murdoch empire.

And in a jibe at former Times journalist Baldwin, Cameron pointed out that Miliband was the only party leader currently to employ a News International executive.

Cameron said the Conservative party chairman had gone through the accounts and confirmed that neither Wallis nor his company had "ever been employed by or contracted by the Conservative party – nor has the Conservative party made payments to either of them".

On claims that Wallis provided Coulson with some informal advice on a voluntary basis before the election, Cameron said: "To the best of my knowledge I didn't know anything about this until Sunday night." He later added that he did not know Wallis had been contracted to work for Scotland Yard.

The prime minister also rallied to the defence of Llewellyn over claims made yesterday by outgoing senior Scotland Yard officer John Yates that he had turned down an offer to be briefed on the police investigation.

He said there would have been "justified outrage" if he had done anything else.

"Ed Llewellyn's reply to the police made clear that it would be not be appropriate to give me or my staff any privileged briefing," said Cameron. The reply that he sent was cleared in advance by my permanent secretary, Jeremy Heywood.

"If they had done the opposite and asked for, or acquiesced in receiving privileged information – even if there was no intention to use it – there would have been quite justified outrage. To risk any perception that No 10 was seeking to influence a sensitive police investigation in any way would have been completely wrong."

Cameron also named the panel of independent experts who will help Lord Justice Leveson examine media practices in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

They include: Shami Chakrabarti, the director of human rights group Liberty, former Daily Telegraph and Press Association journalist George Jones, former political editor for Channel 4 News Elinor Goodman, former chairman of the Financial Times Sir David Bell, Lord David Currie, former chairman of Ofcom, and former chief constable of West Midlands police Sir Paul Scott-Lee.

The inquiry will look at the phone-hacking scandal specifically but also at broader issues involving politics, the media and the police, and is expected to report within 12 months, said Cameron.

"This public inquiry is as robust as possible," the prime minister said. "It is fully independent. Lord Justice Leveson will be able to summon witnesses under oath."

Cameron also told MPs that following the turmoil at the Metropolitan police caused by the resignations of Stephenson and Yates, an independent figure from outside the force will now take over the phone-hacking investigation.

"The current deputy commissioner, Tim Godwin, who stood in for Paul Stephenson when he was ill, and did a good job, will shortly do so again. The vital counter-terrorism job, carried out by John Yates, will be taken on by the highly experienced Cressida Dick.

"The responsibilities of the deputy commissioner – which the house will remember include general oversight of the vital investigations both into hacking and into the police, Operations Weeting and Elveden – will not be done by someone from inside the Met, but instead by Bernard Hogan-Howe, who will join temporarily from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary."