Mayor gives backing to Mail editor

London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, has paid tribute to the editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, as a defender of press freedom – despite the series of embarrassing exposures of Mr Johnson's private life the Mail has published in the past.

Mr Johnson was commenting on evidence given last week to the Leveson inquiry, set up in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, during which Mr Dacre delivered a passionate attack on tougher regulation of the press.

Mr Johnson told a journalists' lunch in the Commons yesterday: "I was amazed by how passionately I found myself in agreement with what Dacre was saying."