Did you know that Murdoch papers targeted the Soham parents?

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

In a speech to GMB Congress this afternoon, Tom Watson MP set out the case against Murdoch, phone tapping and his personal experiences of invasion of privacy. Describing them as “a company that is comercially ruthless, politically insolent and corporately thuggish”.

Discussing the fear that his family felt as reporters rooted through his rubbish, and the rubbish of his neighbours, Watson also sought to draw attention to one of the most shameful aspects of the phone hacking scandal – the phone hacking of the parents of the children murdered in Soham. Watson told GMB delegates:

“When the nation was grieving, they tried to hack the phones of the parents of the children who were murdered in Soham…You probably didn’t know they targeted the Soham parents. That’s because it’s hardly been written about in a British newspaper. Or ever mentioned by a British broadcaster.”

It is probably too much to hope for that Watson’s speech today, or his years of work on this issue, will make the scandal of the Soham parents phone hacking widely know. But his relentless dedication to exposing the Murdoch empire – and its support for the Tory “jihad against public sector workers” should be applauded, as at was at GMB congress this afternoon.