The Murdoch family dramatically turned the tables on Britain’s government yesterday, putting pressure on David Cameron and one of his senior ministers to answer tough questions about their close relationship with News Corp.
In evidence presented to an official inquiry into the press, James Murdoch, News Corp’s deputy chief operating officer, laid bare the intimate relationship between his company and the office of Jeremy Hunt, the media minister who was acting in a quasi-judicial capacity in deciding on News Corp’s £8.3bn bid for full control of BSkyB, the British satellite broadcaster.
Mr Cameron was last night standing by Mr Hunt, the minister in charge of the London Olympics, but he is braced for worse to come today when Rupert Murdoch takes the stand at the Leveson inquiry into press standards.