Paul McBride QC has questioned the merits of the Leveson enquiry into media ethics which has been ongoing in the last week, while speaking to members of the media at the Scottish Journalists Lunch.

McBride, invited to be a keynote speaker alongside former chancellor Alistair Darling, said that there was ‘very little evidence of journalistic wrongdoing’ and also added that he believed that the proportionality of the allegations of criminality surrounding journalists did not measure up.

“Where is the enquiry about missing persons when there are thousands of missing children? What resources have they allocated to that, whereas we have millions of pounds of police officers dedicated to investigating the contravention of the telecommunications act?” McBride asked.

He went on to highlight stories that have been broken in recent years, including that of politician Liam Fox, corruption among Pakistan cricketers. “We wouldn’t know about elected and unelected members of Parliament stealing from us or of being taken to war on a false basis”, he continued, also citing the financial “scandal” that had ‘brought the world to it’s knees’ or of racism in football.

“I know many of you to be fair, decent people,” he continued. “We’ve known in the past that police officers are corrupt, so does that mean we take away police officers? Of course not!”

Earlier this year the Crown Office announced an investigation was underway to probe into police corruption involving journalists.

The lunch was hosted by Glasgow and West of Scotland Branch Chairman David Dinsmore, GM at News International, Scotland.