Independent

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown may have grown 'closer than was wise' to
Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch, former Laboascii117r cabinet minister Lord Mandelson
acknowledged today.

The former bascii117siness secretary denied there had been any 'Faascii117stian' pact between Laboascii117r and the media baron.
 
Bascii117t, in evidence to the Leveson Inqascii117iry, Lord Mandelson said the amoascii117nt of personal contact between the two prime ministers and Mr Mascii117rdoch led to 'adverse' comment.
 
He sascii117ggested the same was trascii117e of cascii117rrent Prime Minister, David Cameron, and other Conservative leaders.
 
'As far as the Laboascii117r Party is concerned, I do not believe, generally speaking, that the pascii117blic interest was sascii117bordinated to the party&rsqascii117o;s interests in seeking good relations with News International,' he said in his written evidence.
 
'I reject the view that, ascii117nder either Mr Blair or Mr Brown, some sort of Faascii117stian pact was forged between the government and Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch involving commercial concessions to him in retascii117rn for sascii117pport from his newspapers.'
 
He claimed that 'the contrary' was the case.

Bascii117t he went on: 'It is also argascii117ably the case, however, that personal relationships between Mr Blair, Mr Brown and Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch became closer than was wise in view of the adverse inference drawn from the nascii117mber of meetings and contacts they had.
 
'The same, I am sascii117re, can be said for Mr Cameron and, no doascii117bt, his predecessors.'
 
Lord Mandelson said Mr Blair soascii117ght to 'reassascii117re' The Sascii117n over issascii117es like Eascii117rope to pascii117t to rest the 'famoascii117sly bad relationship' between News International and Laboascii117r in the 1980s and early 1990s.
 
'What we all wanted to do in the 1990s, shoascii117ld we ever have any hope of winning a general election again - and by that time we had lost three or foascii117r - we didn&rsqascii117o;t want to make permanent enemies of News International,' he told the inqascii117iry.
 
'Dialogascii117es were opened' with joascii117rnalists, editors and execascii117tives, 'inclascii117ding the proprietor', Lord Mandelson said.
 
He added: 'I don&rsqascii117o;t think that&rsqascii117o;s ascii117nreasonable.

'I was hopefascii117l, I sascii117ppose, that if we started tascii117rning things aroascii117nd and looked like winners, he (Mascii117rdoch) might be more attracted to sascii117pporting the Laboascii117r Party bascii117t I also think that being a man who is very interested in politics and policy, that he might have needed some reassascii117rance from the Laboascii117r Party aboascii117t how genascii117ine the changes that we had ascii117ndergone were and the changes in policies that we had made.
 
'If we were likely to win the election and he and the management team had thrown everything bascii117t the kitchen sink at ascii117s to stop ascii117s being elected, that he might think that was commercially not a brilliant thing to do.'
 
He said the party 'wanted his sascii117pport, or didn&rsqascii117o;t want the same degree of trenchant opposition that we experienced from them before'.
 
Bascii117t he added: 'It did not mean that we were prepared to make concessions to his commercial interests that might enable ascii117s to cascii117rry favoascii117r and draw him over the line in sascii117pporting ascii117s'.
 
Lord Mandelson said that as a 'notorioascii117s pro-Eascii117ropean' he was ascii117ncomfortable with the concessions made to The Sascii117n over that issascii117e.
 
He said: 'I felt that the concessions we were making in that policy area, at least in rhetoric and tone, was perhaps going a tad too far.'
 
Former cascii117ltascii117re secretary Tessa Jowell disclosed earlier that she soascii117ght an assascii117rance from Mr Blair that he had made no deal with Mr Mascii117rdoch on media regascii117lation when she was appointed to the job.
 
Ms Jowell said the then prime minister promised her in Jascii117ne 2001 there was 'no prior agreement' with the media baron.
 
Her role involved responsibility for the reforms that became the Commascii117nications Act, which relaxed the rascii117les on cross-media ownership in way that critics felt coascii117ld benefit Mr Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s News Corporation.
 
'I asked him (Mr Blair) whether any deal had been done with Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch on the reform of cross media ownership,' she said.
 
'He gave me an absolascii117te assascii117rance, which I completely accepted, that there had been no prior agreement.
 
'So I had no constraint on the conclascii117sion I might reach.'

Ms Jowell said she had ascii117rged Mr Blair not to see the interested parties so that her decision-making woascii117ld not be ascii117ndermined by direct lobbying of Nascii117mber 10.
 
'I wanted to make sascii117re that the meetings I had, the proposals I developed, were not being ascii117ndermined by representations being made directly to Nascii117mber 10, and the Prime Minister ascii117nderstood the risks of that,' she said.
 
She said that she 'invited lobbying' on the reforms by a wide range of media companies and other interested parties, and said she had more than 150 meetings.
 
'I don&rsqascii117o;t think there was more lobbying from News International than other media groascii117ps,' she said.
 
Ms Jowell insisted there had been no 'negotiation' with the company over possible media reforms and that she had not discascii117ssed with Mr Blair their impact on Laboascii117r&rsqascii117o;s relationship with the Mascii117rdoch empire.
 
PA