Osborne denies conspiracy with Murdochs over failed BSkyB bid

Mr Osborne told the Leveson Inquiry yesterday that he had no strong feelings either way about the bid, which he said was a “political inconvenience” that would “cause us trouble one way or the other”.

He said suggestions media mogul Rupert Murdoch was promised ownership of the broadcasting group in exchange for Tory support from The Sun were “complete nonsense”, referring to comments made by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who gave evidence at the inquiry into press ethics before him yesterday.

Mr Brown denied claims he “declared war” on Rupert Murdoch in a telephone call and had acted aggressively towards former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks.

He also raised questions about reporting practices at The Sun, criticising a story it published about his son Fraser’s cystic fibrosis, which he had complained about in July 2011.

The ex-Labour leader called for measures to stop the “conflation of fact and opinion” in the press.

Mr Osborne, however, struck a different tone, warning Lord Justice Leveson it would be a “slippery slope” to impose restrictions on the media based on judgements about what was in the public interest.

It was the clearest signal yet that the Government will not support proposals for sweeping changes to press regulation.

Pressed about his role in the BSkyB saga, Mr Osborne said: “I regarded the whole thing as a political inconvenience and something we just had to deal with, and the best way to deal with it was to stick to the process.”

He cast himself as “merely an external observer of the process”, claiming he had had no “specific conversations” about it with either Business Secretary Vince Cable, who was initially responsible for it, or Jeremy Hunt. The quasi-judicial role was transferred to the Culture Secretary after Mr Cable’s opposition to the bid was exposed when reporters secretly recorded him declaring war on Mr Murdoch.

Mr Osborne said claims of a “conspiracy” around Mr Hunt’s appointment did not “stack up”.

Lord Justice Leveson was told of a text exchange between Mr Osborne’s special adviser, Rupert Harrison, and News Corporation lobbyist Frederic Michel in November 2010.

Mr Michel had texted asking if Mr Osborne might write to Mr Cable regarding the “Sky merger”.

Mr Harrison had replied: “We will have to discuss it with G when he is back from China.”

Lord Justice Leveson suggested Mr Harrison might have replied: “This is a judicial process. We are not interfering. Be off with you.”

Mr Osborne told the judge: “He was being diplomatic.”

Mr Osborne denied suggestions he met the Murdochs in a Swiss ski chalet during the 2010 World Economic Forum, but said a meeting had taken place at the previous year’s conference. “I don’t think this was a crucial encounter,” he said.

Mr Osborne also defended the recruitment of former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as Tory communications chief, insisting he was the best man for the job and his contacts at the now defunct Sunday tabloid had no bearing on his appointment.

However, he admitted he had not interrogated the former journalist about the possibility of widespread hacking at the newspaper following the conviction of its royal editor, Clive Goodman.

He said he had made a “reasonable assumption” police had uncovered all the relevant evidence.

Mr Osborne said: “I thought it was worth hiring someone with real talent and ability and weathering the adverse publicity that appointing someone who had resigned from the News of the World would bring.”

Earlier in the hearing, Mr Brown claimed his alleged telephone threats to Rupert Murdoch “never took place”. “I’m shocked and surprised that it should be suggested even when there is no evidence of such a conversation,” he said.

He also questioned the credibility of The Sun’s claims that a member of the public came to the newspaper with the story about his son’s illness.

“That could have been known only to a small group of medical professionals apart from our immediate family,” he said.

Officials at NHS Fife yesterday admitted it was “highly likely” a staff member had leaked the story “without authorisation”, in a statement welcomed by The Sun.

Mr Brown said the story was one of a number of “painful intrusions” into his family’s lives, following media coverage in 2001 and 2002 before the death of his baby daughter Jennifer and told the inquiry: “It is important that lessons are learnt.”

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