Although there was no talk of how Mr Blair could help Mr Murdoch there were separate meetings with Mr Fischer at which issues of

Although there was no talk of how Mr Blair could help Mr Murdoch, there were separate meetings with Mr Fischer at which “issues of mutual interest” were discussed.By March 1995, there were reports that Labour plans for cross-media ownership would not force Mr Murdoch to sell any of his empire. The day after the election it boasted “It was the Sun wot won it!”.Even before he became leader, Mr Blair met Mr Murdoch at a dining club in Belgravia. It was reported that the tycoon was impressed by the politician’s “puppy-dog, youthful, company-lawyer image”.Once Mr Blair was elected, things moved quickly. Labour boycotted News International titles for a year after the move to Wapping in 1986 that led to the dismissal of 5,000 print workers.In 1992 Murdoch’s flagship Sun claimed it had scuppered Labour’s election chances by suggesting that if Neil Kinnock won, the last person to leave Britain should turn out the lights. One signatory was Peter Mandelson, now minister without portfolio and a friend of Elisabeth Murdoch, the tycoon’s daughter.Altogether 24 ministers and 55 MPs still in the Commons backed one or both of the critical motions. Among them was Nigel Griffiths, who as competition minister could now be expected to take the Competition Bill through the Commons and to lead the government defence of Mr Murdoch’s price cuts. A week earlier, a separate motion signed by 59 MPs said the price-cutting battle would lead to “fewer titles, fewer jobs, less choice for readers and a further dangerous concentration of ownership”.

predatory pricing, with the intention of forcing rivals out of the market, will reduce choice and undermine competition,” it said, before calling on the Conservative government to prevent the practice No fewer than 81 Labour MPs signed the motion. “The newspaper industry is not only an important business but also a vital organ of the democratic process … Introducing him, the media tycoon joked: “If the British press is to be believed, today is all part of a Blair-Murdoch flirtation. If that flirtation is ever consummated, Tony, I suspect we will end up making love like two porcupines – very carefully.”

For Mr Blair, the relationship bore fruit when he was elected with the key support of the Sun.

But Mr Murdoch had to wait until yesterday for full satisfaction when No 10 launched a passionate attack on his critics after the Lords passed an anti-Murdoch amendment to the Competition Bill.
A year earlier, few Labour MPs would have believed such a scene was possible. In fact, in July 1994 the shadow financial secretary to the treasury, Alistair Darling, sponsored a Commons motion condemning a newspaper price- cutting campaign by Mr Murdoch. A Northern Irish garage owner accused of involvement part in the London Docklands bombing was cleared yesterday on an order of a judge at the Old Bailey. Mr Justice Blofeld directed the jury to find Patrick McKinley not guilty after deciding there was insufficient evidence.
Mr McKinley, 34, was alleged to have played an important role in converting a lorry into a transporter which was used as a mobile bomb for the blast in February, 1996, which brought the 18-month IRA ceasefire to an end.. IN JULY 1995, Tony Blair flew halfway round the world to cement his relationship with Rupert Murdoch at a News Corporation conference. “More and more women wish to exercise their choice to take parts in all sports at all levels.”. “But we are not addressing the moral argument, we are simply trying to assert her right to earn a living,” she said.