James Murdoch met Cameron 12 times (From Wandsworth Guardian)

James Murdoch met Cameron 12 times

12:28pm Tuesday 24th April 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

James Murdoch met David Cameron 12 times while he was leader of the opposition, including four meetings also attended by Rebekah Brooks, the Leveson Inquiry has heard.

The media mogul briefly talked to Mr Cameron at a dinner about the removal of Business Secretary Vince Cable's powers to oversee News Corporation's bid to take over broadcaster BSkyB.

Mr Murdoch had drinks with the Tory leader in September 2009 to discuss The Sun's plans to endorse the Conservative Party at the following year's general election, the press standards inquiry was told. He also met Chancellor George Osborne and Foreign Secretary William Hague during the Tories' time in opposition.

After Mr Cameron entered Number 10 in May 2010, Mr Murdoch and his family had lunch with him at the Prime Minister's country retreat, Chequers in Buckinghamshire, in November 2010. Mrs Brooks and her husband, Charlie, hosted a dinner attended by the media mogul and Mr Cameron on December 23 2010.

This was two days after Mr Cable was stripped of his responsibilities for regulating the media after he was caught on tape by undercover reporters claiming to have "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire.

James Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry that he and Mr Cameron mentioned what had happened: "He reiterated what he had said publicly, which is that the behaviour had been unacceptable, and I imagine I expressed the hope that things would be dealt with in a way that was appropriate and judicial."

"It was a tiny conversation ahead of a dinner where all these people were there, so it wasn't really a discussion."

The inquiry heard that Mr Murdoch had lunch at Chequers with Tony Blair when he was prime minister in July 2004. He also held a conference call with Mr Blair in October 2005 during which he may have discussed European Commission proposals for regulating broadcasting rights for English Premier League football.

Mr Murdoch had three meetings at 10 Downing Street with then-prime minister Gordon Brown in March and December 2008, and January 2009. He said he could not remember exactly what was discussed, adding: "He would have told me lots of things about the economy and the like."

Mr Murdoch confirmed he was "friendly" with Mr Osborne. He said he had one discussion with the Chancellor about News Corp's bid to take over BSkyB. Mr Murdoch said his conversation about the proposed buy-out of the satellite broadcaster with the Chancellor "would have just been to be grumpy about it taking a long time and being referred to (regulator) Ofcom, which I was very clear in public about at the same time".