Paul Dacre has suggested to the Leveson Inquiry that signed-up members of a new press regulator should be given press cards, with press events only to be open to those with a card.

The editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail said that the cards for credited print organisations would come into effect in government press briefings and other events in public office.

He said: "It is in the interests of both sides, news providers and news obtainers, why should they not have the right to believe they are dealing with accredited journalists?"

Dacre has said that Lord Hunt's idea for contracts to lock newspapers into the new regulatory body is "attractive", but is warning against the new regulator having the power to insist on where newspapers print apologies or corrections, saying that it would ‘undermine the editor’.