Chancellor met News Corp chiefs 16 times
Details of the meetings were released as the government published records of all ministerial contacts with senior media executives, in the wake of the controversy over phone hacking at the News Corp-owned News of the World and Murdoch’s ditched bid to take over BSkyB.
It also emerged News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch was the first senior media figure to meet Jeremy Hunt after he was appointed culture secretary in May last year — though this was before Hunt was given responsibility for deciding on the BSkyB bid.
Osborne met Rupert Murdoch twice, once for what was described as a “general discussion” shortly after taking office in May and the second time in December. He met former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and Murdoch’s son James — News Corp’s chief executive in Europe — on five different occasions each.
The chancellor has also had one-to-ones with editors of News International papers: James Harding of The Times, John Witherow of the Sunday Times and Colin Myler of the News of the World.
The first senior media figure Hunt met on becoming culture secretary in May last year was Rupert Murdoch at a dinner.
The following month he met James Murdoch for a general discussion.
Following his assumption of responsibility for the BSkyB takeover bid in December, he had two further meetings with James Murdoch in January this year to set out the process around the proposed merger.
Business Secretary Vince Cable, who was stripped of responsibility for ruling on whether the BSkyB bid should go ahead after boasting he had “declared war on Rupert Murdoch”, did not have as much contact as some of his colleagues with News Corp figures.
The publication of ministers’ contacts with media figures was ordered earlier this month by Prime Minister David Cameron, who revealed he had himself met News Corp executives on 26 occasions since entering 10 Downing Street.
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