Rupert Murdoch’s company has been accused of hacking politicians for “political and commercial espionage”. The media mogul is pictured above in London in June 2023. Photo: PA/Alamy
Rupert Murdoch’s company used criminal methods to hack MPs’ phones for “political and commercial espionage” and deleted nearly 31 million emails as civil and criminal suits threatened to expose their behaviour, a new report suggests.
The claims, which have featured in numerous court actions against the publishers of the now defunct News of the World and TheSun, have been pulled together for the first time in June’s edition of Prospectmagazine.
Journalist Nick Davies, who first broke the phone-hacking allegations in 2009, sorted through thousands of pages of evidence, according to Prospect, to “piece together a narrative of how the company employed numerous private investigators to hack private individuals, and also MPs – including Cabinet ministers”.
The allegations against Rupert Murdoch’s company feature in the June edition of Prospect magazine. Photo: Prospect magazine
Phone-hacking has cost the Murdoch organisation an estimated £1 billion to date, and the ongoing court cases have exposed a cache of new evidence – including documents, invoices, call logs and emails – which weren’t available when the story broke.
More than 1,600 cases have been settled by the company, Prospect noted.
Davies, Prospect said, has found evidence that the Murdoch company was using criminal means to target politicians of every rank – including the Attorney General, Business Secretary and Chancellor – and that “some” of the hacking appears to have been done for commercial or political “aims rather than trying to get stories”.
Further claims in the Prospect articles include:
Sixteen Liberal Democrat MPs, then in the Conservative Coalition Government, received more than 1,500 suspicious calls.
There were also hundreds of suspect calls to MPs from other parties opposed to Murdoch business interests. Claimants argue this was “political and commercial espionage”.
Gordon Brown, while Chancellor and Prime Minister, was allegedly targeted 24 times from the Wapping “hub” – a central phone number located where Murdoch’s newspapers were based.
Subscriptions
