Evidence emerging from the Leveson Inquiry hints that the Tories entered into a 'Grand Bargain’ with News International.
At this stage the evidence is only circumstantial, but the charge that the Cameron government has done commercial favours for the Murdochs in return for political support is very serious Photo: GETTY
Rupert Murdoch presented an impression of almost otherworldly innocence in Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice: harmless, cuddly, a bit forgetful for sure, but nevertheless a man of definite integrity.
It was a charming event in its way. But watching this Oxford-educated showman, perhaps appearing for the final time on a public stage, it was easy to forget one important truth. The newspapers Mr Murdoch owns are under investigation for a number of crimes that include bribery, perversion of the course of justice, destruction of evidence, interception of emails, phone hacking and perjury.
No fewer than 16 of his editors or senior journalists, along with one chief executive and 10 reporters, have been arrested. There are three active police investigations, as a result of which four police officers have been arrested, as have 15 others, including civil servants and members of the Armed Forces. In all, nearly 50 people have been arrested.
A criminal culture stretched right across Mr Murdoch’s News International, if the police are right. Indeed, it is very important to stress that we are not just talking about the case of one rogue cell, as so often when corporate law‑breaking occurs. All across Mr Murdoch’s media outlets – the Sun, the now-closed News of the World, The Times, and Sky Television – there are allegations of very serious criminal misconduct.
It is far too soon to make judgments. Charges have yet to be pressed and no convictions have been secured. But if even a fraction of the allegations are proven, then the case of News International will go down as the greatest criminal/corruption scandal, by far, in modern British history. There will be Hollywood films about the collapse of the Murdoch dynasty.
Potentially, it is bigger by far than the sordid case of John Poulson, the corrupt architect and businessman who bribed his way into the top reaches of the British political system in the Sixties. And it dwarfs more recent corporate scandals such as Maxwell, Guinness and RBS.
There is, it goes without saying, no reason to believe that Mr Murdoch knew of this illegality. But he was the crucial figure who linked such diverse media outlets as the Sun, News of the World and Sky.
So his arrival in Court 73 was a breathtaking moment. Mr Murdoch is a class act – one reason why so many of his employees still love him. Though old, he still has charm and a sense of humour. There was no evidence, as some commentators have claimed, that Mr Murdoch is taking revenge on the politicians.
His manner was genial, and it should be noted that News Corporation did not publish yesterday’s deadly emails out of spite, as some have claimed, in order to take down David Cameron’s government. They were obliged to publish them only after Lord Justice Leveson ordered it.
Mr Murdoch’s inner circle has always known about his charm but, like the Queen, Mr Murdoch’s voice is very rarely heard in public. This is one reason why yesterday’s extended court appearance was so very compelling. And, just like the Queen, he seems to have been around for ever, having burst on to the British scene in 1968 with the corporate raid that grabbed the News of the World.
Ever since then there have been allegations that Mr Murdoch has used his political connections to exert improper influence. But, exerting his immense personal charm, he dismissed them all yesterday. Woodrow Wyatt, toady and political courtier, treacherously claimed in his posthumous diaries that he had “all the rules bent” to secure Mr Murdoch’s purchase of The Times, apparently in breach of monopolies regulations, in 1981. The newspaper tycoon dismissed the claim as empty, entering into laborious detail, and adding for good measure that he had never asked any British prime minister to do anything.
Mr Murdoch insisted that he had never extracted any commercial favours from Tony Blair, and expressed his strong disapproval of the practice of phone hacking. He insisted that the first priority of his newspapers was to tell the truth – a laughable proposition from an organisation that published the Hitler diaries and the Sun’s notorious front page on the Hillsborough disaster – but doubtless sincerely meant.
All of these dealings with Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and even Gordon Brown were ancient history and little more than academic interest. But the Leveson Inquiry has suddenly become a live and terribly dangerous event for David Cameron.
Exactly 20 years ago Mr Murdoch’s Sun was credited with destroying the election chances of Labour’s Neil Kinnock. Now it is possible that the Murdoch scandal will wreck the career of a sitting Conservative prime minister.
The incidental details, such as Mr Cameron’s employment of the disgraced ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson or the Prime Minister’s ill-judged socialising with Rebekah Brooks, are enjoyable. But they don’t matter that much. However, there is emerging circumstantial evidence that the Cameron government entered into what looks suspiciously like a Grand Bargain with the Murdoch newspaper empire before the last election. It may have gone like this: the Murdoch press would throw its weight behind the Conservative Party in the 2010 general election, and in return the Conservatives would back known Murdoch policy objectives.
As the general election approached, David Cameron’s Conservatives started to throw their weight behind a number of News International policy objectives. In August 2009, nine months before the election, Rupert Murdoch’s son James launched an attack on the BBC (Rupert Murdoch’s greatest commercial rival) in a speech at the Edinburgh Festival. A few days later the now embattled Jeremy Hunt, then shadow culture secretary, wrote an article for the Sun calling for the licence fee to be frozen and demanding that the BBC cut back on its commercial activities.
Notoriously, Rupert and James Murdoch resented the way that the media regulator Ofcom interfered in their business. In July 2009 – again by happy coincidence – David Cameron announced that the Conservatives would abolish Ofcom on winning power.
But the most lethal evidence concerns Conservative Party support for Rupert Murdoch’s third key commercial objective: the takeover of BSkyB, announced in June 2010, just one month after the general election.
Monday’s publication of 165 pages of internal News Corporation text messages and emails tell a very troubling story. They suggest that the Cameron government did not play the role of impartial arbiter as the takeover proceeded. They suggest that, on the contrary, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt took sides, going out of his way to provide News International with support, private information and advice.
Yesterday Mr Hunt’s special adviser Adam Smith, who handled most of the Government’s dealings with NewsCorp, resigned, accepting that he “went too far”. But most Whitehall insiders find it impossible to believe that Mr Smith would have acted as he did without explicit authorisation from his boss.
And late last night, in an important development, it emerged that Mr Hunt spent five days at the NewsCorp headquarters in the United States, very shortly before James Murdoch personally told Mr Cameron that he would be swinging his newspapers behind the Tory party at the looming election.
At this stage the evidence is only circumstantial, but the charge that the Cameron government has done commercial favours for the Murdochs in return for political support is very serious. This, if true, would amount to corruption. Certainly, if proven, it would force the resignation of Mr Hunt. But it is not impossible that the Government would fall. Mr Hunt is one of Mr Cameron’s closest friends in the Cabinet, and would never have set out on the course he did without the agreement of the Prime Minister.
The investigation into the Murdoch organisation has slowly exposed a network of suspected influence peddling, bribery and general criminality stretching way beyond the News International HQ in Wapping. The police are investigating evidence that Mr Murdoch’s reporters corrupted members of the Armed Forces and the civil service, and above all the Metropolitan Police.
This week the investigation at last took a new turn.
The connections between News International executives and politicians have at last come under examination. A story that started with the arrest of the royal correspondent of the News of the World six years ago has found its way to the door of Downing Street.
There is, it goes without saying, no reason to believe that Mr Murdoch knew of this illegality. But he was the crucial figure who linked such diverse media outlets as the Sun, News of the World and Sky.
So his arrival in Court 73 was a breathtaking moment. Mr Murdoch is a class act – one reason why so many of his employees still love him. Though old, he still has charm and a sense of humour. There was no evidence, as some commentators have claimed, that Mr Murdoch is taking revenge on the politicians.
His manner was genial, and it should be noted that News Corporation did not publish yesterday’s deadly emails out of spite, as some have claimed, in order to take down David Cameron’s government. They were obliged to publish them only after Lord Justice Leveson ordered it.
Mr Murdoch’s inner circle has always known about his charm but, like the Queen, Mr Murdoch’s voice is very rarely heard in public. This is one reason why yesterday’s extended court appearance was so very compelling. And, just like the Queen, he seems to have been around for ever, having burst on to the British scene in 1968 with the corporate raid that grabbed the News of the World.
Ever since then there have been allegations that Mr Murdoch has used his political connections to exert improper influence. But, exerting his immense personal charm, he dismissed them all yesterday. Woodrow Wyatt, toady and political courtier, treacherously claimed in his posthumous diaries that he had “all the rules bent” to secure Mr Murdoch’s purchase of The Times, apparently in breach of monopolies regulations, in 1981. The newspaper tycoon dismissed the claim as empty, entering into laborious detail, and adding for good measure that he had never asked any British prime minister to do anything.
Mr Murdoch insisted that he had never extracted any commercial favours from Tony Blair, and expressed his strong disapproval of the practice of phone hacking. He insisted that the first priority of his newspapers was to tell the truth – a laughable proposition from an organisation that published the Hitler diaries and the Sun’s notorious front page on the Hillsborough disaster – but doubtless sincerely meant.
All of these dealings with Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and even Gordon Brown were ancient history and little more than academic interest. But the Leveson Inquiry has suddenly become a live and terribly dangerous event for David Cameron.
Exactly 20 years ago Mr Murdoch’s Sun was credited with destroying the election chances of Labour’s Neil Kinnock. Now it is possible that the Murdoch scandal will wreck the career of a sitting Conservative prime minister.
The incidental details, such as Mr Cameron’s employment of the disgraced ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson or the Prime Minister’s ill-judged socialising with Rebekah Brooks, are enjoyable. But they don’t matter that much. However, there is emerging circumstantial evidence that the Cameron government entered into what looks suspiciously like a Grand Bargain with the Murdoch newspaper empire before the last election. It may have gone like this: the Murdoch press would throw its weight behind the Conservative Party in the 2010 general election, and in return the Conservatives would back known Murdoch policy objectives.
As the general election approached, David Cameron’s Conservatives started to throw their weight behind a number of News International policy objectives. In August 2009, nine months before the election, Rupert Murdoch’s son James launched an attack on the BBC (Rupert Murdoch’s greatest commercial rival) in a speech at the Edinburgh Festival. A few days later the now embattled Jeremy Hunt, then shadow culture secretary, wrote an article for the Sun calling for the licence fee to be frozen and demanding that the BBC cut back on its commercial activities.
Notoriously, Rupert and James Murdoch resented the way that the media regulator Ofcom interfered in their business. In July 2009 – again by happy coincidence – David Cameron announced that the Conservatives would abolish Ofcom on winning power.
But the most lethal evidence concerns Conservative Party support for Rupert Murdoch’s third key commercial objective: the takeover of BSkyB, announced in June 2010, just one month after the general election.
Monday’s publication of 165 pages of internal News Corporation text messages and emails tell a very troubling story. They suggest that the Cameron government did not play the role of impartial arbiter as the takeover proceeded. They suggest that, on the contrary, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt took sides, going out of his way to provide News International with support, private information and advice.
Yesterday Mr Hunt’s special adviser Adam Smith, who handled most of the Government’s dealings with NewsCorp, resigned, accepting that he “went too far”. But most Whitehall insiders find it impossible to believe that Mr Smith would have acted as he did without explicit authorisation from his boss.
And late last night, in an important development, it emerged that Mr Hunt spent five days at the NewsCorp headquarters in the United States, very shortly before James Murdoch personally told Mr Cameron that he would be swinging his newspapers behind the Tory party at the looming election.
At this stage the evidence is only circumstantial, but the charge that the Cameron government has done commercial favours for the Murdochs in return for political support is very serious. This, if true, would amount to corruption. Certainly, if proven, it would force the resignation of Mr Hunt. But it is not impossible that the Government would fall. Mr Hunt is one of Mr Cameron’s closest friends in the Cabinet, and would never have set out on the course he did without the agreement of the Prime Minister.
The investigation into the Murdoch organisation has slowly exposed a network of suspected influence peddling, bribery and general criminality stretching way beyond the News International HQ in Wapping. The police are investigating evidence that Mr Murdoch’s reporters corrupted members of the Armed Forces and the civil service, and above all the Metropolitan Police.
This week the investigation at last took a new turn.
The connections between News International executives and politicians have at last come under examination. A story that started with the arrest of the royal correspondent of the News of the World six years ago has found its way to the door of Downing Street.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9226292/Will-Rupert-and-James-Murdoch-topple-David-Cameron.html
