Brown says Murdoch misleading ethics inquiry

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused media tycoon Rupert Murdoch on Monday of misleading a government-sponsored inquiry into press ethics with incorrect testimony alleging Brown had threatened war against Murdoch’s company.

“This conversation never took place. I am shocked and surprised that it should be suggested,” Brown told the Leveson inquiry. “This call did not happen. The threat was not made.” Murdoch had told the inquiry under oath that Brown phoned him in September 2009 after The Sun newspaper started supporting the Conservative Party. Brown vowed to wage war on Murdoch’s firm in revenge,he testified.

Brown further challenged Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks’s version of a Sun report about Brown’s four-month-old son Fraser who had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. She said Brown had allowed the report to be published. Brown denied those claims.

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Brown also said The Sun was guilty of “the conflation of fact and opinion” in its coverage of the Afghan war.

Treasury chief,George Osborne,testified after Brown. He denied suggestions that he’d waved through Murdoch’s multibillion-pound bid for satellite broadcaster BSkyB in return for the mogul’s political support.