Lib Dems faced ‘heavy lobbying’ from News International
By Alex Stevenson Follow @alex__stevenson
Vince Cable has claimed News International targeted the Liberal Democrats with "heavy lobbying" over its bid to takeover BSkyB.
The business secretary appeared to confirm the suggestion that he was the source of an Observer article citing a 'senior party figure' claiming that the Lib Dems would be "done over" by the Murdochs' company if the party did not allow the bid through.
Mr Cable referred the £10 billion attempt to acquire 100% of shares in BSkyB to Ofcom, before being caught on tape last December claiming he was at "war" with the Murdochs. He was stripped of his media plurality responsibilities as a result.
He told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show that the "heavy lobbying" was "perfectly legal" and added: "I don't want to dwell on the past and my own role in the past."
The Observer report claimed 'bullying' officials from News International threatened to persecute the junior coalition party and took their lobbying beyond acceptable limits.
The full extent of News International's efforts to influence the government became clearer this weekend when the Sunday Telegraph revealed chancellor George Osborne dined with Rupert Murdoch just two weeks before Ofcom's BSkyB ruling was due.
Officials from the Treasury have insisted the takeover bid was not discussed, however.
Last week prime minister David Cameron insisted he did not have "inappropriate" conversations with Rebekah Brooks or other senior News International executives, despite meeting 26 times with them in the last year.
Mr Cable said he wanted to see a presumption against cross-ownership in press and television.
He said that a "balanced historical view" would conclude that Mr Murdoch had made a "positive contribution", but added: "We need diversity, we need plurality, we need choice. And it needs to come from wider ownership."
Writing for the Mail on Sunday, he said it was important to "discount the outpourings of self-righteousness from many of Murdoch's press rivals".
"What has been revealed is a sleazy world of mutual back-scratching between police officers and the media and close ties with senior politicians; widespread illegal phone-tapping; and outright corruption, seemingly including the police," he wrote.
"Those whose faith in the British Establishment had already been shaken by greedy and incompetent bankers and expenses-fiddling MPs have now seen more and worse."
