Murdoch a threat to Cameron

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch faces questions at the Leveson Inquiry in London. Photo: AFP

Evidence of what looks suspiciously like a Grand Bargain between the Tories and the News empire could wreck the PM's career.

RUPERT Murdoch presented an impression of almost otherworldly innocence in Court 73 of London's Royal Courts of Justice: harmless, cuddly, a bit forgetful for sure, but nevertheless a man of definite integrity. It was a charming event in its way. But watching this Oxford-educated showman, it was easy to forget one important truth. The newspapers Murdoch owns are under investigation on suspicion of crimes that include bribery, perversion of the course of justice, destruction of evidence, interception of emails, phone hacking and perjury.

No fewer than 16 of his editors or senior journalists, along with one chief executive and 10 reporters, have been arrested. There are three active police investigations, as a result of which four police officers have been arrested, as have 15 others, including civil servants and members of the armed forces. In all, nearly 50 people have been arrested.

A criminal culture stretched right across Murdoch's News International, if the police are right. Indeed, it is very important to stress that we are not just talking about the case of one rogue cell, as so often when corporate law-breaking occurs. All across Murdoch's UK media outlets - The Sun, the now-closed News of the World, The Times and Sky Television - there are allegations of serious criminal misconduct.

Illustration: Andrew Dyson.

It is far too soon to make judgments. Charges have yet to be pressed and no convictions have been secured. But if even a fraction of the allegations are proved, then the case of News International will go down as the greatest criminal/corruption scandal, by far, in modern British history. There will be Hollywood films about the collapse of the Murdoch Mafia.

There is, it goes without saying, no reason to believe Murdoch knew of any illegality. But he was the crucial figure who linked such diverse media outlets as The Sun, News of the World and Sky.

So his arrival in Court 73 was a breathtaking moment. Mr Murdoch is a class act.

Ever since 1968 when he burst onto the British scene with the corporate raid that grabbed the News of the World, there have been allegations that he has used his political connections to exert improper influence. But, exerting his immense personal charm, he dismissed them all on Wednesday. The newspaper tycoon added that he had never asked any British prime minister to do anything.

The Leveson inquiry has suddenly become a terribly dangerous event for David Cameron. Exactly 20 years ago Murdoch's Sun was credited with destroying the election chances of Labour's Neil Kinnock. Now it is possible the Murdoch scandal will wreck the career of a sitting Conservative prime minister.

There is emerging circumstantial evidence that the Cameron government entered into what looks suspiciously like a Grand Bargain with the Murdoch newspaper empire before the last election.

It may have gone like this: the Murdoch press would throw its weight behind the Conservative Party in the 2010 general election, and in return the Conservatives would back known Murdoch policy objectives.

As the general election approached, Cameron's Conservatives started to throw their weight behind a number of News International policy objectives. In August 2009, nine months before the election, Murdoch's son James launched an attack on the BBC (Rupert Murdoch's greatest commercial rival) in a speech at the Edinburgh Festival. A few days later the now embattled Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, then shadow culture secretary, wrote an article for The Sun calling for the licence fee to be frozen and demanding that the BBC cut back on its commercial activities.

Notoriously, Rupert and James Murdoch resented the way media regulator Ofcom interfered in their business.

In July 2009 - again by happy coincidence - Cameron announced that the Conservatives would abolish Ofcom on winning power.

But the most lethal evidence concerns Conservative Party support for Rupert Murdoch's third key commercial objective: the takeover of BSkyB, announced in June 2010, just one month after the general election.

Monday's publication of 165 pages of internal News Corporation text messages and emails tells a troubling story.

They suggest the Cameron government did not play the role of impartial arbiter as the takeover proceeded. They suggest that, on the contrary, Hunt took sides, going out of his way to provide News International with support, private information and advice.

On Wednesday Hunt's special adviser Adam Smith, who handled most of the government's dealings with NewsCorp, resigned, accepting that he ''went too far''. But most Whitehall insiders find it impossible to believe Smith would have acted as he did without explicit authorisation from his boss.

And in an important development, it has emerged that Hunt spent five days at the News Corp headquarters in the United States shortly before James Murdoch personally told Cameron he would be swinging his newspapers behind the Tories at the looming election.

At this stage the evidence is only circumstantial, but the charge that the Cameron government has done commercial favours for the Murdochs in return for political support is very serious. This, if true, would amount to corruption. Certainly, if proven, it would force Hunt's resignation.

But it is not impossible that the government would fall. Hunt is one of Cameron's closest friends in the cabinet, and would never have set out on the course he did without the agreement of the Prime Minister.

The investigation into the Murdoch organisation has slowly exposed a network of suspected influence peddling, bribery and general criminality stretching way beyond the News International HQ in Wapping. The police are investigating evidence that Murdoch's reporters corrupted members of the armed forces and the civil service, and above all the Metropolitan Police.

This week the probe at last took a new turn. The connections between News International executives and politicians have at last come under examination. A story that started with the arrest of the royal correspondent of the News of the World six years ago has found its way to the door of Downing Street.