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Gordon Brown responds to Murdoch allegations

April 25, 2012 4:44 pm

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Today Rupert Murdoch alleged at the Leveson enquiry that Gordon Brown declared war on News International. In a statement this afternoon Gordon Brown has responded saying:

“Mr Rupert Murdoch has today made a serious allegation that in a telephone call when ‘The Sun’ declared for the Conservative Party, I told him I had declared war on his company.

He is wholly wrong.

As the Leveson Inquiry heard ‘The Sun’ declared for the Conservatives on the 30th of September, 2009. I did not phone Mr Murdoch or meet him, or write to him about his decision.

The only phone call I had with Mr Murdoch in the last year of my time in office was a phone call specifically about Afghanistan and his newspaper’s coverage of the war. This was in the second week of November after his newspaper, The Sun, printed a story in the second week of November about the death of a soldier and his mother’s complaints .

I hope Mr Murdoch will have the good grace to correct his account.”

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=697126564 Paul Halsall

    I am not a big fan of Gordon Brown, and he clearly had some personality issues, but he was always a basically decent and conscientious guy. To me his most horrible mistake was appointing James Purnell to replace Peter Hain, although he did other things I did not like.

    But he did not hate and trample on the poor and disabled for pleasure – as the current Tories see to do – and worked hard to avoid a collapse of the banking system (which was necessary) and to preserve employment.To see Brown – a flawed but decent man – attacked by Murdoch, whose entire career has been about coarsening Australian, British, and then US culture, really is too much.

    Gordon has served his purgatory.

    Murdoch still faces his hell.

    • treborc1

       We will attack politicians when we think they make mistakes, Brown made a few I did not like and others I did, he was wrong to state Disability allowance was a wasted benefit, he was right to give tax and child credits.

      But you have to say the Sun News paper and the Murdock empire have been about pure and simple money and trouble, the Murdock’s should never ever  been allowed to built that heap of crap, as for BSKYB god help us. But why oh why did labour have to play the Murdock games.

      • Colinfinch

        ‘Murdoch’ for goodness sake.   Pedant alert, sorry.

    • Bill Lockhart

       ”but he was always a basically decent and conscientious guy”

      He was a malevolent bullying sociopath, driven by ambition, envy and sullen, vengeful resentment. Murdoch’s accusation rings 100% true.

      • AlanGiles

        They “ring true” to you because you want them to. Old Murdoch (Mr Rupert) is a manipulative liar – just look at his “Old Man Steptoe” persona sitting alongside his son last summer, with the sullen braggadocio of yesterday.

        Good actor – ro0tten newspaper proprietor

        • treborc1

          We know Browns problems and we know one thing which differs him from the Murdock’s, Brown is and was elected by the people and could have been removed by the party at any time.

          Unlike the Murdock’s who have never been elected but could  make or break governments through his empire, which now has to be broken up.

          My worry after the hacking, the problem with Blair and  Brown through the Murdock’s, the enquiry, we still see Hunt and Cameron fall under the Murdock influence over BSKYB deal, it’s unbelievable and stupid.

          • Bill Lockhart

            Well, he was elected as a constituency MP if that’s what you mean. Beyond that he never won an election. The electorate rejected his “leadership” at the first available opportunity.

          • treborc1

            That’s democracy for you.

          • treborc1

            That’s democracy for you.

          • AlanGiles

            I think at the moment the last thing they would risk would be to let the BSKYB deal go through – it would look too brazen. I would suspect that it will kicked into the long grass for a couple more years. The Hunt/Adam Smith affair looks very similar to the Fox/Werrity one, where, if they are to be believed two ministers allowed the tail to wag the dog. I would hope within a few weeks Hunt will go the same way as Fox.

      • Terry Brown

        Typical tory idiot trying to score points for his idiotic leader CAMERON. Having read some of his other comments shows he is an idiot to.

  • aracataca

    Out of Murdoch (‘the Dirty Digger’)  and Gordon Brown, I know which one I think is telling the truth.  

    • treborc1

      The Dirty Digger, interesting

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_AUXG65ZTN2WKPU5D5KH35W7HQM Elaine

    Theres no two doubts that the person telling the truth is Gordon. Murdoch is hell bent on revenge and throwing Gordon to the lions even if its not true is the sort of evil enjoyment Murdoch would get out of it.  He took away jobs at main Sky centre in Gordon’s town out of revenge I bet.  Makes me feel sick that I worked for the evil toad! 

    • JoeDM

      Brown was a central part of the government that produced the ‘dodgy dossier’.

      I never believe politicians of any party.

      • AlanGiles

        If you don’t believe Joe, why are you forever defending the Conservative party?. A case of “I believe, help thou my unbelief”?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Graeme-Hancocks/1156294498 Graeme Hancocks

    “Good grace”! Murdoch?! The two things are  incompatible. 

  • Pamelafellows

    Can’t personally think of anyone better to declare war on.  

    Gordon Brown did his best to protect the ordinary working people from the banking crisis by protecting jobs.  He is worth at least ten of Messrs Osborne and Cameron

    • geedee0520

       So GB did declare ‘war’ then?

    • Mark

      What about the 10p tax rate debacle, hardly helped the poor, made millions worse off?

      • Colinfinch

        Wow, is that the best you can do Mark, ‘the 10p tax rate’…..ffs.

        • treborc1

          Well it did not affect you then, would you be one of the middle class that gained from it, of course the 10p mess was important

  • jaime taurosangastre candelas

    Glad to see the old beast is alive.  Now that he’s awake, apart from defending his role in the previous Government, I wonder if he could confirm what he’s been doing to “earn” his £67,000 salary and £120,000 in expenses in the last two years?  His constituency website is like a dusty cobweb, with a charity event of 15 months ago being the latest entry in the “News” section. His voting record is also astonishingly poor, and he has not made any speeches of note.

    • treborc1

      I think to go off on a rant about Brown when the attack should be about Murdock says a lot more about your politics I think.

      Yes we all know about Brown, but this is about a power  hungry unelected group of people who have hacked, spied, attacked people and have had massive control on the leaders of a country.

      I would have thought you would have at least had a go at the Murdock’s or is it the rich you love so much.

    • John Ruddy

      Well, a big concern from his consituents is not about his attendence record int eh chamber, but about radioactivity on their beach. I can assure you he has been working very hard to put pressure on those responsible for the clean up, and that is why if there was an election tomorrow, he would get re-elected.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001102865655 John Ruddy

    The thing which strikes me is that is that these words that Murdoch has said Gordon said do not SOUND like something he would say. They just dont ring true. 

    • treborc1

       Whether they ring true or not, he should now prove it or retract it

  • Anyhony33009

    Keith murdcock the Australian Rat, Roach… Has caused so many problems for both Great Britain and the U.S. People since the 1960s.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Homfray/510980099 Mike Homfray

    Given that Murdoch is a lying, deceitful and unpleasant toad, its hard to believe anything he says in his own defence. He isn’t a fit person to own a UK media business

    • treborc1

       I suspect you should go a bit further, and change it from UK to the world, but he is like many others who think power and money can change governments

    • Bill Lockhart

       Exactly the same argument applies to Brown. Impasse.

  • JC

    It all depends on who you want to believe. Sometimes even Nadine Dorries is lauded for her perspicacity, other times she is derided for knowing nothing about nothing. Same for Murdoch. If he reveals something bad about the tories, it must be true, otherwise, take your pick. Whatever happened to investigative journalism?

  • Richard Mackinnon

    Paul Halsall,  You say Gordon Brown was “….. always a basically decent and conscientious guy”.  Was he?
    When the bank for the poorest people in the country went burst, Fairpak,  (a Christmas savings bank) cost to bale out  £ 27m.  GB refused to help.  Also remember who the chancellor was when the 10% tax rate for the lowest paid was abolished.
    Regarding the bale out of Northern Rock,  RBS and HBOS, you claim that ” it was necessary”.  Ask yourself this, why if it was good enough to bale out ‘the big ones’ the same did not apply to the bank where the poorest saved.
    Labour still dont get it.  It is no longer good enough to just bad mouth the opposition eg “But he did not hate and trample on the poor and disabled for pleasure – as the current Tories see(m) to do”.   Facts are what voters base their decisions on. 

    • Colinfinch

      Erm, wasn’t Fairpak a privately owned and Ltd co. that had it’s money pinched by it’s dodgy owners??

  • Richard Mackinnon

    Colinfinch,  Yes Fairpak was privately owned and so were RBS,   HBOS and Northern Rock.  No difference between them.  So again I ask you why did GB bale out the big ones and not the smallest?  And why scrap the 10% tax rate for the lowest paid? My interpretation of why GB differentiated between one failed bank and another is this;  he saw himself as an Iron Chancellor with the wee guys but bottled it when big banks went burst.  In other words GB was a walking disaster as a politician.  He was consumed by one thing in his life,  and only one thing;  self aggrandisement,  the top job.  Nothing else mattered,  and as a consequence his judgement,  his moral compass went haywire. Unfortunately for Labour two powerful but dangerous men came onto the political stage at exactly the same time in UK politics,  both Labour politicians and Labour quite rightly will pay the price for their recklessness for decades to come.  I say quite rightly because although many other senior Labour figures realised the folly of their policies,  nobody with the exception of Robin Cook stood up and said anything. 

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