16:30 04 July 2013
Labour MP Tom Watson has called on Rupert Murdoch to be questioned by the police after a recording of him emerged. In the said recording, Murdoch appeared to regret the level of help that News Corporation gave to the investigation into alleged wrongdoing at its newspapers.
Murdoch was heard saying: "… it was a mistake, I think. But, in that atmosphere, at that time, we said, 'Look, we are an open book, we will show you everything'. And the lawyers just got rich going through millions of emails.
"All I can say is, for the last several months, we have told, the MSC has told, and [**** ****], who's a terrific lawyer, has told the police, has said, 'No, no, no – get a court order. Deal with that.'"
Watson told the Guardian: "I think we need to hear from [Metropolitan police commissioner] Bernard Hogan-Howe when the MSC stopped co-operating with the police inquiry."
Watson added: "What he seems to be saying there is that they stopped co-operating with the police before the Sun staff started to rebel. And what I would like to know is what are they sitting on that they've not given the police. And I'm sure that this transcript and this audiotape should be in the hands of the police tomorrow because
I hope that they're going to be interviewing Rupert Murdoch about what he did know about criminality in his organisation."