Labour steps up pressure on Hunt

The Deputy Leader of the Opposition wrote to David Cameron last night to accuse Mr Hunt of failing to take responsibility for a special adviser, disclosing the contents of a parliamentary statement to News Corporation about its bid to take over BSkyB before informing MPs, and failing to give “accurate and truthful” information to Parliament on the release of communications between his department and the Murdoch empire.

Mr Hunt’s special adviser Adam Smith resigned yesterday over emails he had sent to a senior News Corp official about the Government’s position over the BSkyB bid.

The Culture Secretary, who is refusing to quit, told Parliament he believed Mr Smith overstepped the mark unintentionally.

Echoes of the row also sounded north of the border, where Alex Salmond rejected opposition demands to make an urgent statement to the Scottish Parliament about his relationship with the Murdoch media empire – but said he would be “delighted” to give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.

The Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders in Scotland united to call for the First Minister to come before MSPs and answer questions on whether he had been prepared to intervene and lobby Mr Hunt on the proposed takeover of BSkyB.

As the row continued, Rupert Murdoch began his own evidence at the Leveson Inquiry, telling the hearing that successive UK Prime Ministers may have wooed him to win his papers’ backing, but he never asked them for any favours.

The billionare News Corporation chairman and chief executive claimed the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown rang him in an “unbalanced” state of mind and “declared war” on his media empire after The Sun switched support to the Conservatives.

Mr Brown last night denied the claim and called on him to change his evidence.

At the start of a two-day appearance before the press standards inquiry, Mr Murdoch, 81, recounted how his one-time “warm personal relationship” with Mr Brown broke down after The Sun stopped backing Labour.

The UK’s “top-selling newspaper” announced it would support the Conservatives at the next general election on its front page on September 30 2009, the day after Mr Brown’s speech to the Labour Party conference in Brighton.

Mr Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry, which is now examining the relationships between the Press and politicians, that the then-prime minister phoned him after this and asked him if he knew what The Sun was doing.

He said he told Mr Brown he was not warned about the exact timing of the paper’s announcement and added: “I am sorry to tell you Gordon, we have come to the conclusion that we will support a change of government when and if there is an election.”

The media tycoon went on: “He said ‘Well, your company has declared war on my government and we have no alternative but to make war on your company’.

“And I said, ‘I’m sorry about that Gordon, thank you for calling’, and end of subject.”

Mr Murdoch said he did not know how the former Prime Minister might have “made war” on News Corp, adding: “I don’t think he was in a very balanced state of mind.”

But Mr Brown said last night that the “serious allegation” that he declared war on the media mogul’s company was “wholly wrong”.

He said in a statement: “I did not phone Mr Murdoch or meet him, or write to him about his decision. The only phone call I had with Mr Murdoch in the last year of my time in office was a phone call specifically about Afghanistan and his newspaper’s coverage of the war.

“This was in the second week of November after his newspaper, The Sun, printed a story in the second week of November about the death of a soldier and his mother’s complaints.

“I hope Mr Murdoch will have the good grace to correct his account.”

Mr Murdoch also told the inquiry Mr Brown made a “totally outrageous” statement after the phone-hacking scandal broke, suggesting a 2006 Sun story about his son Fraser having cystic fibrosis had been obtained illegally.

The billionaire tycoon told the hearing Tony Blair was a “personal friend” and described how David Cameron as leader of the opposition took a detour from a holiday in Turkey to meet him on his daughter’s yacht off a Greek island in 2008.

Mr Murdoch also said he wanted to use his evidence to “put some myths to bed”.

He said rumours he has not forgiven Mr Cameron for setting up the inquiry were untrue and rejected suggestions he used his newspapers to promote his commercial interests.