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:
When Brown heard about his taped phone call, he was not angry with the mother, but he was very angry with The Sun. Rupert Murdoch personally intervened to try and repair relations between the government and News International and told Brown in a phone call on 22 November that he thought the paper was ‘wrong to publish the Janes story’. The tone of the conversation between the two was described as ‘warm’. Brown said: ‘Rupert you know I respect you and hold you in the highest regard. You know that I have never criticised you personally, and I have never let my people criticise you personally, but your people in London are making a great mistake. You’ve got to sort them out’. ‘I hear you’ replied the media mogul ‘and I want to apologise.’ Those who observed the two men together were often struck by their similarities: ‘they were both outsiders, both from a long line of Scottish Presbyterian stock, they valued hard work, they both operated on the basis of knowing more than others, and they both had a phenomenal drive to win’ says one. On the call they disagreed only on Brown’s claim that The Sun’s campaign was ‘undermining our mission in Afghanistan’. The atmosphere of the conversation then began to deteriorate when Murdoch pleaded with the Prime Minister three times to speak to Rebekah Brooks, who was also on the line. ‘I have no interest in speaking to the woman who is persecuting me’ said Brown stubbornly. After more pressure from Murdoch he finally conceded. During a very tense conversation Brown raged: ‘How dare you do this to me!’ A breathless Brooks tried to deny she had anything ‘to do with the headline’ and claimed that she had been on holiday when the decision to run the story was taken. ‘I know you’re lying to me’ Brown yelled and slammed the phone down. It would be the last time the two spoke.
Guy Lodge is the author (with Anthony Seldon) of Brown at 10
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