What Brown and Murdoch really said to each other

In the paperback of our book – Brown at 10 – Anthony Seldon and I published an extract of the call that took place between between Gordon Brown and Rupert Murdoch, which has been the subject of some discussion today following Rupert Murdoch’s evidence to the Levenson inquiry. Brown is right about the timing and subject of the call. They did not speak after the Sun announced its decision to back the Tories during Labour’s 2009 conference. They spoke in November after the Sun ran a story critcising the handwritten letter Brown wrote to the mother of a solider killed in Afghanistan. And Brown’s anger was directed not at Murdoch but at Rebekah Brooks, who was also on the call.

This is what was said: