Murdoch backs staff and announces ‘Sun on Sunday’

Rupert Murdoch’s decision to launch a Sunday version of The Sun was denounced by politicians as “massively premature”.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, who has led the phone-hacking campaign, also described the decision to lift the suspensions on all arrested staff as the “most cynical piece of hypocrisy”.

He said News International had campaigned for public officials who have been charged with criminal offences to be suspended from office but was now not applying the same requirement to its own staff.