Cabinet Office confirms Gordon Brown story over 'make war' call
Published Jun 15 2012, 13:44 BST | By Andrew Laughlin
© Rex Features
The BBC's Norman Smith has just tweeted information he received from the Cabinet Office regarding the claims made by the former prime minister at the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics this week.
It says: "We confirm there is a record of only 1 call between Mr Brown and Rupert Murdoch in year to March 2010 on 10th of Nov 2009."
The Cabinet Office said that there was a phone conversation in November 2009 between Brown and the News Corporation boss, but this was followed by an email referring to a discussion on Afghanistan.
Gordon Brown's spokeswoman said: "This statement confirms Mr Brown's evidence to the Inquiry."
The ex-PM's team added that Murdoch has been unable to provide any evidence of the alleged 'declaration of war' supposedly made by the then PM in September 2009, after The Sun shifted its support to the Conservatives ahead of the 2010 election.
However, Murdoch's News Corp issued a statement earlier in the week saying: "Rupert Murdoch stands behind his testimony."
He claimed, under oath, that Brown phoned him at the time The Sun shifted its allegiance and said: "Well, your company has declared war on my government and we have no alternative but to make war on your company."
Asked why the former Labour leader would say that, Murdoch replied: "I don't think that he was in a balanced state of mind."
However, Brown took the stand at Leveson on Monday (June 11) and denied that the call had ever taken place.
"This call did not happen, this threat was not made," he said.
"I couldn't be unbalanced on a call that I didn't have... and I find it shocking that we should get to this situation some time later when there is no evidence of this call happening at the time that he says it happened and you to be told under oath that this was the case."
The former Labour leader released Downing Street phone records to the inquiry showing that he had spoken to Murdoch on November 10, 2009, at 12.33pm. He said that the two had spoken about the war in Afghanistan.
The Cabinet Office information released today (June 15) appears to back Brown's version of events, and so there could now be more questions from Lord Justice Leveson over Murdoch's evidence.
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Like Cameron said once: "We are all in this together." And Mrs Brooks has already confirmed this in a text to Cameron as revealed in the Leveson Inquiry. So, what we have here, is that everyone, well almost everyone appearing in the witness box has been lying through their teeth. I do hope that the inquiry is satisfactorily concluded and there is no cover up. Quite frankly, this state of affairs is appalling and detrimental to what should be right within a democracy since no one is above the law.
June 17th 2012 at 9:36am
Rupert Murdoch lied? Oh my god, who ever would have thought it.
June 15th 2012 at 3:16pm
"Allegedilly"...How can anyone be sure who is the king of the porkies...could it be "Their all in it together"
June 16th 2012 at 12:49pm(+1 like)