Gordon Brown responds to Murdoch allegations

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.”