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Business News/ Politics / News/  Murdoch protégée haunts Cameron
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Murdoch protégée haunts Cameron

Murdoch protge haunts Cameron

Answering back: Rebekah Brooks arrives for the Leveson Inquiry in London on Friday. By Stefan Wermuth/ReutersPremium

Answering back: Rebekah Brooks arrives for the Leveson Inquiry in London on Friday. By Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

London: David Cameron signed off messages to former tabloid editor Rebekah Brooks with an affectionate “LOL", she told an inquiry on Friday, conjuring the embarrassing image of a British prime minister-in-waiting fawning over a Rupert Murdoch protégée.

Answering back: Rebekah Brooks arrives for the Leveson Inquiry in London on Friday. By Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

“Occasionally he would sign them off LOL, lots of love," Brooks said in answer to a question on text messages she frequently exchanged with Cameron during the 2010 election campaign, when he was still in opposition.

“Actually, until I told him it meant ‘laugh out loud’, and then he didn’t sign them like that anymore," she added.

Murdoch shut down The News of the World last July when it emerged its journalists had hacked into the voicemails of public figures and a murdered schoolgirl. In the wake of the revelations, Brooks resigned as CEO of Murdoch’s British newspaper group and is now under police investigation.

Her testimony at the Leveson Inquiry revealed she had met frequently with Cameron, lobbied key offices of government for the approval of a major Murdoch takeover bid and intervened in the long-running row between former Labour prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. “We were a newspaper that was looking after the real, serious concerns of our readers," she said.

Lawyer Robert Jay cut straight to the chase as Brooks began her day-long testimony, pressing her for names of politicians who had expressed sympathy when she was caught up in the hacking storm in July 2011. At first Brooks sought to evade the question, but eventually said: “I received some indirect messages from Number 10, Number 11, the Home Office, the Foreign Office." Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street are the prime minister’s and finance minister’s offices, respectively.

Cameron also sent a message to Brooks via an intermediary explaining that he could not remain loyal to her publicly because opposition leader Ed Miliband “had him on the run" over his cosy relationship with top people in the Murdoch empire.

Brooks said Blair, with whom Murdoch had a friendly relationship, had also got in touch at that time, but his successor Gordon Brown had not. Brown had once courted Brooks and Murdoch, but had fallen out with them over coverage that he viewed as hostile and intrusive. “He was probably getting the bunting out," Brooks said with a smile.

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Published: 11 May 2012, 10:15 PM IST
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