James Murdoch bombshell for Tories over BSkyB bid

Tycoon son’s evidence puts PM and culture minister on the rack
James Murdoch: Speaking to the Leveson inquiry today

David Cameron and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt were on the rack this afternoon after sensational evidence to the hacking inquiry from James Murdoch.

The Prime Minister was facing accusations that he acted inappropriately after Mr Murdoch confirmed for the first time that they discussed his company’s £8 billion bid to take full control of broadcaster BSkyB at a Christmas dinner party in the home of Rebekah Brooks.

Mr Murdoch said that a lobbyist working for him had contacts with Mr Hunt’s special adviser while Business Secretary Vince Cable was dealing with the bid.

The QC for the inquiry, Robert Jay, described Mr Hunt as “your cheerleader Mr Hunt”. Mr Murdoch replied: “I think that’s unfair.” The exchanges came in a dramatic day of evidence to the Leveson Inquiry by News Corp deputy Mr Murdoch.

Mr Hunt took over the bid after Mr Cable was sacked when he told undercover reporters he had “declared war on Mr Murdoch”. Mr Hunt later said he intended to give the deal the go-ahead but Rupert Murdoch abandoned it amid the public outcry over phone hacking.

Giving an extraordinary insight into the huge political clout wielded by the Murdoch empire, James Murdoch listed a string of meetings with the country’s most powerful figures, including a dozen meetings with Mr Cameron before he became prime minister, plus talks with Gordon Brown and George Osborne.

The most controversial meeting was when Mr Cameron was guest at the home of Ms Brooks, then the chief executive of News International, at her Oxfordshire home at Christmas 2010, two days after the Prime Minister stripped Lib-Dem minister Mr Cable of ministerial responsibility to decide on the BSkyB bid. Asked if they discussed the bid, Mr Murdoch said he spent a few moments with Mr Cameron pointing out the bid needed to follow the “correct and legal process”.

“I recall speaking briefly to the Prime Minister on one occasion about the proposal,” said Mr Murdoch in his witness statement. “This was on Dec 23, 2010, at a dinner hosted by Rebekah and Charlie Brooks and attended by a number of other people.”

Questioned later, he said: “I imagine I expressed the hope that things would be dealt with in way that was appropriate and judicial. It was a tiny side conversation, it was not a discussion.”

Labour were demanding that Mr Cameron come clean about exactly what he said. In Parliament last year the Prime Minister said: “I never had one inappropriate conversation” about the bid. Downing Street also said Mr Cameron had “not been involved in any of the discussions about BSkyB”.

Mr Murdoch, 39, also revealed he “grumbled” to the Chancellor about the protracted bid.

But the most explosive disclosures were about the role played by the Culture Secretary, Mr Hunt, who has long been known as an admirer of Rupert Murdoch.

The inquiry was told that the office of Mr Hunt privately briefed Murdoch executives about the bid. News Corps provided the inquiry with 163 pages of internal correspondence from its senior executive Frederic Michel, who was in close contact with Mr Hunt’s office for over a year.

In September 2010, following one report that claimed Ofcom would review the News Corps bid, Mr Michel wrote: “Jeremy Hunt is not aware of this and thinks it’s not credible at all.”

In another internal memo, it appears Mr Hunt briefed Mr Murdoch that “there wouldn’t be any problems”.

Mr Jay asked: “You were receiving information along the lines that the UK government would be supportive of News Corps. Mr Murdoch replied: “No ... it was customary back and forth between a public affairs executive and people at the DCMS (Department of Culture Media and Sport).

Mr Cable, a prominent critic of the Murdoch empire, was the minister overseeing the bid until December 2010 but he frustrate News Corp executives in 2010 by refusing to meet them. Responsibility was removed from Mr Cable after he was caught criticising the Murdoch’s in a rival newspaper sting.

James Murdoch also denied that his company offered the support of News International’s newspapers to the Conservatives in exchange for ministerial approval of the BSkyB bid. He said: “The question of support of an individual newspaper for politicians one way or another is not something that I would ever link to a commercial transaction like this, nor would I expect that political support one way or another ever try to translate into a minister behaving in an appropriate way ever.”

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