Prime Minister Thatcher: 1979-1990

¶1.1 Margaret, now Baroness, Thatcher enjoyed sustained, substantial though not unqualified

support from a range of national newspaper titles throughout her tenure as Prime Minister, yet she is reputed to have spent little time herself actually reading newspapers:1

¶"Margaret Thatcher never read a newspaper from one week to the next."

While titles with a consistent history of leaning to the left of centre were equally consistently critical, those sections of the press with a history of shifting political leanings were as supportive as traditionally Conservative newspapers. In that sense, at any rate, from Lord Mandelson's perspective:2

"Mrs Thatcher was able to call on the virtually uncritical support of both publishers and editors."

¶1.2 A particular feature of Baroness Thatcher's era was the strong personal relationship which

she enjoyed with a number of newspaper proprietors, characterised by mutual respect and shared political ideology. Rupert Murdoch described himself to be a "great admirer"3 of Baroness Thatcher, agreeing that he was on the "same page politically".4

¶1.3 The Inquiry heard a consistency of opinion on this matter. Mr Murdoch's title, The Sun,

was described to the Inquiry by Tony Blair as "a major part of supporting Mrs Thatcher",5 although Mr Murdoch himself put it more modestly.6 David Mellor QC observed that: "[Rupert Murdoch's] ...straightforward right wing populist opinions made him a soulmate for Mrs Thatcher".7 Sir John Major attributed Baroness Thatcher's rapport with newspaper proprietors to her political outlook:8

"Margaret was probably the most right of centre leader the Conservative Party had had for quite a long time, and I think that appealed to the natural instincts of many proprietors and editors at the time, and I think support was accordingly offered."

Andrew Neil, the former editor of The Sunday Times, also described Baroness Thatcher and Mr Murdoch as "ideological soul mates".9 Sir John interestingly connected the bond between Baroness Thatcher and these proprietors with their common commitment to trade union I

1122

¶PART I | The Press and Politicians

reform, to shared views about business (and buccaneering businessmen)10 and the European Union, and to popular admiration for Baroness Thatcher's role in the Falklands War.

¶1.4 Baroness Thatcher's relationship with many proprietors did not manifest itself in frequent

meetings with them or their editors. Mr Murdoch firmly denied the suggestion that he had consulted with her regularly on every important matter of policy.11 Mr Neil saw Baroness Thatcher once in seven years.12 Kelvin MacKenzie told the Inquiry that he probably saw Baroness Thatcher about twice a year but later confirmed that he did not doubt that she wanted his support.13

¶1.5 The relatively modest number of meetings does not necessarily indicate that a friendly

proprietor did not have access to the Prime Minister. Mr Murdoch was readily received when he approached her whilst he was a bidder for Times Newspapers. The result was that he visited Chequers for lunch where he briefed her on his bid and his vision for Times Newspapers. The acquisition of Times Newspapers is described in detail elsewhere.14

¶1.6 It is easy to understand why Baroness Thatcher enjoyed a good relationship with a number

of proprietors but more difficult to attribute any specific benefit for either party to the relationship itself. Baroness Thatcher enjoyed a good deal of positive media coverage, although even generally supportive titles were sometimes critical (for example, Mr Murdoch preferred to support President Reagan over Baroness Thatcher when the United States invaded Grenada).15 But the explanation for the positive coverage is readily attributable to editorial approval for her policies and disapproval of those of the Opposition. There was straightforward political alignment and an element of straightforward mutual personal rapport (not to say admiration).

¶1.7 Importantly, it is clear from Mr Murdoch's evidence, which is corroborated by contemporary

notes, that he neither expressly asked for nor was expressly offered any favourable policy decisions by Baroness Thatcher.16 He was indeed permitted to buy Times Newspapers without a reference to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission (MMC) but this does not appear to me to be directly attributable to personal influence. The Prime Minister was not in any event the decision maker.17

¶1.8 Mr Neil suggested that in late 1985, in the run up to the major industrial dispute at Wapping,

Mr Murdoch went to "square Thatcher", by which he meant seek an assurance that there would be sufficient policing of the dispute to enable him to continue to do business at Wapping.18 That was indeed the result, but the Government's stance during the Wapping dispute was in accordance with its approach to other industrial disputes (not least the miners' strike).

¶I

1123

¶Chapter 2 | The Conservative Years

¶1.9 An indication of the influence of Mr Murdoch towards the end of Baroness Thatcher's tenure was provided by Mr Mellor in these terms:19

"By the time Murdoch came to establish Sky, a brave entrepreneurial investment that deserved to succeed, and a process I was happy to help along in the Broadcasting Act 1990, he was used to Ministers doing his bidding, rather than the other way around. He was personally charming to deal with, but he was one of the few people, apart from Heads of State, I, as a minister, had to visit at his premises rather than him having to schlepp over to the Home Office."

¶1.10 There were nevertheless decisions on media policy taken by the Government which went

against supportive proprietors. News International was not granted a domestic broadcasting licence and had to launch Sky, its satellite television service, using a foreign satellite.20 On this, the Sunday Times, under Mr Neil, supported Lord Heseltine against Baroness Thatcher.21

¶1.11 More than one witness suggested that the prospect of honours played a part in Baroness

¶Thatcher's relationship with senior media figures. Alastair Campbell put it bluntly:22

"Margaret Thatcher had much more press support, partly for political and ideological reasons, in that most owners and editors are right wing and genuinely supported her, but also because she operated what today would be seen as a corrupt system of patronage using the honours system to reward supportive owners and editors".

¶1.12 Lord Mandelson did not put it so high:23

"She cultivated and honoured and nurtured editors and journalists very successfully. The relationship was, I think, relatively calm during her period. It might not have seemed so calm to her on all occasions ..."

¶1.13 Lord Grade offered these thoughts on the question of patronage:24

"...we are happily past the days when the politicians of the day used to pack the boards of the regulators with their friends and supporters, such as my time as a controller of BBC One when in the days of then Mrs Thatcher's government when the board of the BBC were packed with her friends. We've moved on from then, we have a Nolan process ..."

¶1.14 An issue of interest to the Inquiry was the question of the perception amongst politicians of the extent to which newspaper endorsement assists election prospects. Andrew Marr said:25

"There is always a hierarchy of media contacts. For a Conservative minister, contacts at The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Spectator and blogs like Conservative home I are particularly valuable, and likely to be closer; Liberal Democrats will more likely turn to papers and blogs read by their activists, and Labour, ditto. Throughout the

1124

¶PART I | The Press and Politicians

Thatcher, Major and Blair governments, the Murdoch stable was always perceived by its rivals to have a privileged position. "This was because of its spread and power as a publishing group, and Mr Murdoch's readiness to use papers such as the Sun to intervene aggressively. But it made close social relationships, at Murdoch parties or Oxfordshire get-togethers, peculiarly disheartening for press rivals" (emphasis added)

¶1.15 As notable as the active support of much of the press for Baroness Thatcher was its hostile

attitude to the Opposition. Throughout Baroness Thatcher's time in office, successive Leaders of the Opposition, first Michael Foot and then Neil Kinnock, were the subject of considerable adverse press coverage. Writing from the Labour Party's perspective, Mr Campbell described the period as follows:26

"What we do know is that the press [Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock] received was hugely biased against them, and in favour of Mrs Thatcher and her Party. Michael Foot had long been derided by the right wing media for perceived political and personal shortcomings, the most famous being the alleged disrespect he showed in attending the 1981 Remembrance Sunday Service in what was mythologised as a "donkey jacket". But that was but part of a long campaign during which in several papers Mr Foot could only be defined negatively. According to the book, Stick it up your Punter, the Sun and the Express told freelance photographers covering a Foot visit not to bother sending pictures of the Labour leader "unless falling over, shot or talking to Militants." The Daily Mail, under a pre-knighted David English, led a front page with a disputed claim that Nissan would "scrap plans for a £50m car plant" if Labour won the election. "35,000 jobs lost if Foot wins" screamed the headline. I cite this as a typical rather than exceptional example. Labour's defeat in 1979, and a seeming shift to the left, ignited not so much political debate as focus on sinister Marxist forces, wrongly ensuring that at times in the public debate Labour's political doctrine was indistinguishable from the Communists'. The Express earned top marks from Tory Central Office with a "Spot the Trots" feature of 70 "extremist" candidates, among them Neil Kinnock and Robin Cook".

¶1.16 Lord Mandelson put it this way:27

"I think what I meant by [horrible and bloody] is that, you know, there has been a longer standing trend in the press to mix reporting with comment, and it didn't simply revolve around that period in the 1980s and the 1992 election. I think that what took this sort of merging of comment and reporting to a higher level was the more lethal cocktail, which I believe that the Labour Party was exposed to, and that was a sort of

¶I mixture of aggression and inaccuracy, and I think that the Labour Party generally and

its leader, Mr Kinnock, in particular were the victims of that. "I think that the press took their gloves off, I think there was a sort of lack of scruple or restraint in the reporting of the Labour Party in those years. "Now I also quite honestly observe in my witness statement that, you know, a lot of the damage the Labour Party had done to itself in the early part of the 1980s. We weren't exactly making it easy for people to report us positively or warmly given the vote-losing policies, the divisions, the entries into the Labour Party by the far left.

1125

¶Chapter 2 | The Conservative Years

"But by the end of the 1980s, by the time we got to the 1992 General Election, a great deal, I would say the bulk of that swamp had been emptied, and that the Labour Party had changed and I don't think we were given the credit for those changes and I think Mr Kinnock in particular was on the receiving end of treatment by the media, notably but not only News International titles, that was not warranted and was not fair".

¶1.17 Peter Oborne felt that there had been: "a poisonously unfair media towards Mr Kinnock at

that time. He didn't get a fair crack of the whip, and therefore if he tried to sell a policy, it tended to get misrepresented."28 Headlines from this era included: "Glenys the Menace" (Daily Mail) and "Kinnock – I back loonies" (The Sun).29

¶1.18 The relationship between the Labour Party and News International was particularly poor

during this period for another reason: the dispute at Wapping. Labour sought to mark its disapproval of Mr Murdoch's handling of the dispute by cutting off the supply of political news to his reporters. As Andrew Grice, formerly the political editor of the Sunday Times, put it:30

"There was a major industrial dispute at Wapping in 1986/7. During that period, officially at least, the Labour party was not even talking to the Murdoch papers and Murdoch paper journalists were banned from any briefings or press conferences the Labour party held. So the back cloth was not just difficult relations but no official relationships at all".

¶1.19 Mr Campbell said that after the Wapping dispute the Labour Party wanted nothing to do with the Murdoch papers.31

¶1.20 A similarly confrontational line was also taken by the Labour Party with TV AM when it was

involved in an industrial dispute. Adam Boulton explained to the Inquiry how he was unable to take cameras with him into the Labour Party conference:32

"...I report that in the context of having been through the TV AM dispute when, at the urging of the ACTT, the Labour Party had done precisely that. They had blacked, as it was then called, TV AM so we could not take our cameras, for example, into the Labour Party Conference of that year so that we – their spokesmen would not appear on our programmes. And of course, the immediate effect of that is that it means that your offering is weaker than the offering of your competitors, who have full access to all the political parties".

¶I

1126

¶PART I | The Press and Politicians