Ex-British prime minister Tony Blair is set to be asked about his friendship with Rupert Murdoch, when he appears at the Leveson Inquiry later.
He will be the first of several high profile politicians due to appear this week, including embattled Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Claims of a "pact" between Mr Blair and Mr Murdoch have been previously denied at the inquiry by Lord Mandelson.
The inquiry is investigating the link between the media and politicians.
Mr Blair was the Labour party leader between 1994 and 2007, and was prime minister from 1997 to 2007, before being succeeded by Gordon Brown.
He is reported to have a close relationship with News Corporation chairman Mr Murdoch, which could form the basis of the scrutiny levelled by the inquiry's barristers.
The witness list also shows that Education Secretary Michael Gove, Home Secretary Theresa May, Business Secretary Vince Cable, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke and Mr Hunt are all due to appear before Lord Justice Leveson before 31 May.
Mr Blair's relationship with Mr Murdoch first came into public view in 1995, when he travelled to Hayman Island in Australia to address News Corp executives.
The trip was part of a New Labour strategy to reach out to newspapers that had unfavourably portrayed previous leaders Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock.
It seemingly worked - in 1997, the Sun newspaper, owned by the Murdoch subsidiary News International, switched allegiance from the Conservative party to Labour.
Giving evidence earlier in May, one of Mr Blair's former cabinet ministers Lord Mandelson told the inquiry he felt the relationship had "arguably" become "closer than wise".
But he dismissed claims of a "Faustian pact" involving commercial concessions for News Corp in return for support from its newspapers.
In April, Mr Blair's former press secretary Alistair Campbell also denied any kind of deal prior to the 1997 general election.
He told the inquiry: "I never was witness to, and I do not believe there was ever a discussion that said, 'now, Tony, if you do this and do this my papers will back you' - it just never happened."
During his evidence, Mr Campbell was also asked about three phonecalls, that took place between Mr Blair and Mr Murdoch in the run-up to the Iraq War in March 2003.
He dismissed suggestions that Mr Blair could not have pursued his defence policy without the backing of Mr Murdoch and the Sun as "complete nonsense"
No comments:
Post a Comment