Norfolk Conservative grandee Gillian Shephard has warned the government it could find itself in a 'nice pickle' if it tries to pass laws to regulate the press through the House of Lords.

Baroness Shephard, who led peers in the rebellion against House of Lords reform, said ministers would find it difficult to get enough support.

Her comments came hours before the publication of Lord Leveson's report into press ethics, which will make recommendations on how newspapers should be regulated when it is released later today.

Prime minister David Cameron will then stand in the House of Commons to indicate whether he will implement all or part of Lord Leveson's recommendations.

Speculation has centred on whether the report will call for statutory regulation, new laws passed by MPs which newspaper editors have claimed would stymie freedom of speech, or a system which can be set up without legislation.

Baroness Shephard told the EDP: 'I don't feel that we should have statutory regulation imposed in the 21st century in a modern democracy. It really is impossible. I'm hoping that the press themselves will have come to their senses over the issue and hope there is sufficient leadership across all branches of the media to understand that things need to change.'

The former cabinet minister was among almost 90 MPs and lords who signed a letter of opposition to any form of statutory regulation.

Just days earlier 42 Tory MPs urged the government not to rule out new laws.

Baroness Shephard said: 'The Lords is very liberal in these types of things. The crossbenchers would block it I'm sure, and then the government would have a nice pickle on its hands.'

Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday the prime minister said he wanted an 'independent' press regulator, but did not specifically say there should be new laws to set it up.

Mr Cameron added: 'One of the key things that the Leveson inquiry is trying to get to the bottom of is how can you have a strong, independent regulatory system so you don't have to wait for the wheels of the criminal justice system or the libel system to work.

'People should be able to rely on a good regulatory system as well, to get the sort of redress they want, whether that is prominent apologies or fines for newspapers or the other things that are clearly so necessary.'

The prime minister pledged to seek a cross-party consensus on the issue, saying he would meet other leaders to discuss how to respond to Lord Leveson's conclusions.

He later added: 'A free press is absolutely vital to democracy. We should recognise all the press has done and should continue doing to uncover wrongdoing, to stand up to the powerful, this is vitally important.

'Whatever the changes we make, we want a robust and free press in our country.'

Labour leader Ed Miliband welcomed what he said was Mr Cameron's commitment to implementing reform, and insisted he wanted 'real change'.

Officials in Downing Street have already been poring over around half a dozen advance copies of the report, said to be almost 2,000 pages long.

Lord Leveson was tasked to carry out his inquiry in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, which found journalists from the News Of The World had been involved in illegally accessing people's voicemail messages, including those of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The newspaper was later closed by its owner News International and there are ongoing legal proceedings relating to the matter.

For full coverage of the report as it is released, and reaction to its recommendations, visit www.edp24.co.uk tomorrow, and for full analysis see tomorrow's EDP.

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