Rupert Murdoch’s News International (NI) launched a campaign of bullying against senior Liberal Democrats in an attempt to force through the company’s bid for BSkyB, high-level sources say.
Lib Dem insiders say that NI officials took their lobbying campaign well beyond acceptable limits and even threatened to persecute the party if British Business Secretary Vince Cable did not advance its case. According to one account from a senior party figure, a Cabinet minister was told that, if the government did not do as NI wanted, the Lib Dems would be “done over” by the Murdoch papers, which included the now defunct News of the World, the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.
The accounts are only now coming to light, say sources, because the minister involved feared the potential for damage to the party, which was already suffering a slide in popularity after going into coalition with the Conservatives. They chime with reports from senior figures in the Labour Party, who say that Murdoch executives issued threats to Labour leader Ed Miliband’s office after he turned on NI when the news broke that murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked into by the News of the World.
Labour insiders say that NI executives made clear to Miliband’s office that because he had chosen to “make it personal” they would do the same, implying they would attack the Labour leader through their media outlets. The pressure on the Lib Dems was at its most intense around the time Cable decided to refer the BSkyB bid to Ofcom. However, it relented after Cable was removed by British Prime Minister David Cameron from responsibility for the bid when he was taped by undercover reporters from the Daily Telegraph saying that he had “declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we’re going to win.”
Insiders believe NI’s interest then focused on the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who took over responsibility for the bid from Cable.
NI declined to comment on the bullying allegations.
The revelations will fuel the debate over Cameron’s friendship with Rebekah Brooks, the former NI chief executive who was arrested a week ago. Labour members of parliament (MPs) placed Cameron under intense pressure last week to reveal whether he had discussed BSkyB in any of his many meetings with Brooks or other NI executives since becoming prime minister.
It was revealed that Cameron had 26 meetings with NI officials since becoming prime minister in May last year. Under sustained questioning in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Cameron said only that he had no “inappropriate” discussions with Brooks or other NI executives about the bid. Formal contacts between NI and Hunt continued right up to last month, during which the question of media plurality was discussed.
On Saturday, more details of the links between No. 10 Downing Street and NI were revealed as it emerged that the company had entertained Downing Street special advisers more than any other organization during the first seven months of the current government. Figures compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism showed that almost a quarter of all lunches, dinners and hospitality enjoyed by Downing Street’s inner circle came from Murdoch’s company.
Labour MP Paul Farrelly, a member of the culture, media and sport select committee, said: “After the phone-hacking scandal we know how deeply News International penetrated Downing Street and the Metropolitan Police.”
Meanwhile, Strathclyde police gave details of investigations into whether witnesses who gave evidence about phone hacking at the trial of jailed politician Tommy Sheridan, including Cameron’s former director of communications, Andy Coulson, may have committed perjury.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese