![]() The relationship between the right-wing press and the Conservative government is just accepted, treated as though it is simply an immutable law of physics. Similarly, while Murdoch was one of daddy’s pals (and bosses), Jacob Rees-Mogg is Leader of the House of Commons so their ‘chats’ are likely to include more than a discussion of what makes a good nanny and how delicious swan’s blood tastes. While Patel may be confused, she did, of course, get fired from her previous ministerial office for running a freelance foreign policy, it’s not actually acceptable for the holder of a great office of state to pass off a meeting with the country’s most powerful media baron as “a private meeting”. Instead it is recorded as “a private dinner” with the “Executive Chairman of News Corp”. Įven within the ‘transparent’ data there’s even more obsfucation: Priti Patel, the Home Secretary and part-time ring wraith, met with Murdoch on 14 September 2020 but it’s not listed like that. Still, that’s an embarassingly low number when you remember that in an earlier more affair-filled life Boris Johnson himself edited The Spectator. Geordie Greig, editor of The Daily Mail, took third place with three meetings with the Prime Minister and six meetings with other ministers.įraser Nelson, editor of far-right fanzine The Spectator, which despite Andrew Neil’s attempts to fiddle the sales figure graphs sells far south of 100,000 copies a week, slipped in to see the Prime Minister twice and met other ministers three times. Newton’s predecessor Tony Gallagher, now deputy editor at The Times, had most meetings with the Prime Minister prior to that, coming joint first for the total of cosy ministerial conflabs with ‘World’s Worst Chris Evans’ Telegraph editor… uh… Chris Evans. News Corp chief executive Ropert Thompson also availled himself of cosy chats with the Chancellor and Prime Minister.Ĭurrent Sun editor Victoria Newton met Johnson and Sunak last summer. Rebekah Brooks, Murdoch’s representative on Earth, also met with Johnson and Sunak in September. The corruption inherent in Rupert Murdoch being able to buy his way into private chats with the Prime Minister - something he has done since the Thatcher years - is not dissipated simply by the mere existence of a list showing how often it’s occurred.Īs well as meeting with Johnson, Murdoch paid for lunch with Rishi Sunak (part of the Eat Out to Get Clout scheme), had a “private dinner” with Michael Gove (his former employee) and had an “informal lunch between friends” with Jacob-Rees Mogg (whose father William had once disdained Murdoch but was bought off by a late period back at The Times as a columnist). The lists are kind of ersatz transparency yes, they show which ministers have been huddling up with which media organisations but without any detail on what was discussed it’s basically dead data. Cameron introduced the records of meetings between ministers/civil servants and media proprietors, senior editors, and executives in July 2011, the same month that he announced the Leveson Inquiry. That there are even lists of behind-the-scenes interactions between the media and government is a hangover from the Cameron-era and I wouldn’t be surprised if, like so many of his ‘innovations’, it was soon cast into the dustbin of history by the Johnson administration. ![]() “Alright, uh, monkey prisons… um… Reintroducing The Death Penalty presented by Priti Patel and Chris Eubank…” Conversations between the Prime Minister or his ministers and media bosses and top editors aren’t minuted and their content is given the blandest of descriptions.įor all we know, the Boris Johnson/Murdoch meetings are the politican equivalent of Alan Partridge pitching a new series to Tony Hayers: ![]() If you find those descriptions vague and frustrating that’s deliberate. Murdoch has met the Prime Minister three times since he assumed office - once in a ‘social setting’ in September 2019, at another ‘social event’ in December 2019 and once for a ‘general discussion’ in September 2020. The next most favoured organisation - Daily Mail & General Trust, owners of The Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, MailOnline, The i and Metro - had less than half the chances to wheedle the PM and Cabinet (16 meetings). The Press Gazette reports that editors/executives from News UK have met with Boris Johnson and his top ministers 40 times since he became Prime Minister in July 2019.
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