Robert Jay QC has had a good morning. One of his opening gambits was to get Michel to say he felt that Adam Smith, Jeremy Hunt's special adviser, was neutral and impartial on the question of NewsCorp's bid for BSkyB.

But over the course of the past half hour, he has built up a case, using the evidence of extensive text messaging and emails, to suggest that Smith in fact had sympathy NewsCorp's bid. As my colleague Martin Hickman notes below, as we break for lunch Michel has in fact admitted that Smith was a supporter of the bid.

Superb interrogation from Jay. Back at 14.00.

The inquiry has resumed, with Frederic Michel continuing to give evidence.

Michel denies that he was giving a "running commentary" on negotiations to Adam Smith. Leveson is surprised by this. Michel says instead there were "back-and-forth" discussions. Leveson and Jay are now onto the question of whether or not Smith, through his text messages, was conveying a personal view or that of Jeremy Hunt.

Jay is going further than he has for most of the Inquiry, in saying that from the text messages between Smith and Michel there is clear indication of strong support from Hunt, and that Michel's answer on this is "not satisfactory". Michel says that he wouldn't make the "leap" that Jay is making.

Michel claimed he managed to get Hunt "before he went into see Swan Lake". Jay tells him "our researches" suggest Covent Garden wasn't showing it that night. He asks Michel to explain the discrepancy and is met with a shrug.

An important development this afternoon is that Labour have accused Jeremy Hunt of lying.

Over at The Guardian, Andrew Sparrow writes:

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"Labour are saying that evidence that has been heard at the Leveson inquiry today shows that Jeremy Hunt has misled parliament.

In April Hunt told MPs that he had not had any unofficial contact with Fred Michel while News Corporation was bidding for BSkyB.

Throughout the bid process, when I got responsibility for it, the contact that I had with Fred Michel was only at official meetings that were minuted with other people present.

But, as Michel's witness statement makes clear (pdf), Hunt exchanged text messages with Michel at some points during these period. The witness statement contains two replies he received from Hunt.

Good to see u too. Hope u understand why we have to have the long process. Let's meet up when things are resolved J.

Merci hopefully when consultation over we can have a coffee like the old days!

Labour say this is prima facie evidence of Hunt misleading parliament."

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Michel accepts that he lobbied the Treasury to see if George Osborne would write a letter supporting the BSkyB bid. Osborne was in China at the time. His special adviser said the matter would be raised with the Chancellor, but the request was never seen through.

Adam Smith is now giving his evidence to Leveson

Smith is being pressed on whether Hunt was supportive of the bid. Half an hour ago, Smith was non-committal but Jay says: "Now I think we're reaching a point where you might agree with me..." This goes to the heart of the problem facing Smith: the inquiry has obtained masses of evidence indicating that his boss strongly supported the bid and that, at the very least, the DCMS department secretly helped News Corp.