Ex-Prime Minister Gordon Brown says lessons cannot be learned about press standards unless there is honesty about how details of how his son’s cystic fibrosis was published by the Sun.
He said he and his wife Sarah were “presented with a fait accompli” by the paper, before it ran a story on their son Fraser’s medical condition in 2006.
Mr Brown is giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.
Chancellor George Osborne will be giving evidence later.
Prime Minister David Cameron will enter the witness box on Thursday.
The inquiry, which is currently focusing on the relationship between the press and politicians, is resuming after a week-long adjournment.
The paper’s then-editor Rebekah Brooks has told the Leveson Inquiry she had the express permission of the Browns to run the story about Fraser’s medical condition, but the Browns have previously said that was “untrue”.
Mr Brown told the inquiry he had been given an apology by the NHS in Fife because they think it “highly likely” unauthorised information was disclosed by NHS staff about Fraser Brown.
He again denied that consent had been given to the Sun to publish the story.
Mr Brown began his testimony by saying he had had a “period of enforced reflection, courtesy of the British people” to think about the relationship between Westminster and Fleet Street.
He went on to say that media in Britain, at its best, is the “best in the world” but said that one of the key problems of the press is the conflation of fact and opinion – mirroring the views stated by his predecessor Tony Blair when he appeared at the Leveson Inquiry two weeks ago.
Mr Brown also said the Sun had falsely accused him of falling asleep at a service of remembrance for British soldiers. He said he had in fact been praying.
‘Unbalanced’
The former prime minister is likely to be questioned about his relationship with Rupert Murdoch during his time in government with Labour.
The News Corp boss told the inquiry in April that Mr Brown had phoned him in an “unbalanced” state of mind and declared war on his media empire after the Sun newspaper had switched its support from Labour to the Conservatives in 2009.
The former PM later denied having made such a threat.
The chancellor, meanwhile, will be asked about the hiring of Mr Coulson in 2007 after he quit the News of the World in the wake of the conviction of the paper’s royal editor for phone hacking.
Mr Osborne will also be asked about his communications with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt on the day Mr Hunt was handed responsibility for the BSkyB bid.
Labour leader Ed Miliband, former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major and Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman will give evidence to the inquiry at London’s Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond will appear on Wednesday, while Mr Cameron will be the sole witness on Thursday
