Labour MPs fired a barrage of awkward questions at two Tory ministers drafted in to replace expenses cheat Maria Miller in Parliament yesterday, writes Luke James in Parliament.

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid and Women’s Minister Nicky Morgan both won loud cheers from backbench Conservatives as they stepped up to the despatch box for the first time.

Rhondda Labour MP Chris Bryant demanded to know why press barons are still being “allowed to mark their own homework” 17 months after the Leveson report was published.

“It wasn’t just one bad apple, it wasn’t just one rogue reporter, it was sytematic abuse,” he reminded MPs.

Reflecting the government’s hands-off approach, Mr Javid insisted it had set up the Royal Charter on media standards and that it is “up to the press to decide what they will do next.”

He then snapped back at a question about what the Con-Dems’ “increasingly male-dominated cabinet” would do to boost women’s participation in sport, labelling it “petty.”