Murdoch’s UK media share ‘too vast’

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major, Labour leader Ed Miliband, and Shadow Culture Secretary Harriet Harman all voiced concern about the concentration of media ownership held by News International.

Mr Miliband suggested Mr Murdoch should have to sell off some of his British media empire, which constitutes a 34 per cent share in the market.

“My strong instinct is that’s too much, and I would like to see the inquiry looking at the question of whether we should have lower limits,” he said.

He said he had “no worries” about someone owning up to 20 per cent of the newspaper market but there was “a question of between 20 to 30 per cent”.

Sir John also called for a cap, suggesting setting it at between 15 and 20 per cent.

He claimed Mr Murdoch – owner of The Sun and The Times – had tried to pressure him into changing his policy on Europe during a dinner in February 1997, a few months before Labour’s landslide general election victory.

“If we couldn’t change our European policies his papers could not, would not support our Conservative government,” Sir John told Lord Justice Leveson.

“As I recall he used the word ‘we’ when referring to his newspapers.

“He didn’t make the usual nod to editorial independence.”

Mr Murdoch previously told the inquiry into Press ethics he had “never asked a Prime Minister for anything”.

In her evidence, Ms Harman said the Press baron’s concentration of newspaper ownership “gave Murdoch a sense of invincibility”.

In a statement she said: “I believe that the wrongdoing in News International went unchecked because their size gave them too much power.”

Mr Miliband said he believed some form of statutory regulation of the Press was needed and called for a independent system to provide “fast-track justice” for individuals wronged by the media.

“I think it would be very important to insert in any Bill constitutional safeguards on the freedom of the Press,” he added.