We’re ‘in this together,’ Murdoch aide told British prime minister
Cameron testifies no secret deal for political support
David Cameron received a text message from Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper boss saying they were “in this together,” a press ethics inquiry heard Thursday during testimony from the prime minister.
The 2009 text from rebekah brooks, who now faces criminal charges relating to the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World tabloid, raised fresh questions about Cameron’s links to Murdoch’s U.s.-based News Corp. But during five hours of televised evidence at the Leveson inquiry, Cameron repeatedly denied making secret deals with Murdoch’s empire in exchange for the political support of the mogul’s newspapers.
Brooks was chief executive of News International, News Corp.’s British newspaper wing, when she sent the text to Cameron the night before a crucial speech to his Conservative party conference, when he was still leader of the opposition.
“I am so rooting for you tomorrow not just as a personal friend but because professionally we’re definitely in this together. Speech of your life? Yes he Cam!,” said Brooks in the text, which was read out to the inquiry.
“Yes he Cam” was the headline the next day in The Sun, Murdoch’s top-selling British tabloid, which had come out in support of Cameron just over a week earlier.
Brooks also suggested that Cameron, who knew Brooks’s husband, Charlie, from their school days at the elite Eton College and lived near the couple — have a “country supper” to discuss an “issue” with the Murdochowned Times newspaper.
The inquiry heard in may that cameron signed texts to Brooks “LOL,” thinking it stood for “lots of love.”
Brooks appeared in court Wednesday charged with hiding material during the last days of the News of the World, which shut amid public outrage when it emerged the tabloid had hacked the phone of a murdered schoolgirl. Her husband and four other people have also been charged and they will all appear before a judge on June 22.