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Updated biography of PM said Cameron messaged Brooks days before she
quit News International
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Contact between the two friends came to 'abrupt halt' after her
resignation
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But PM sent a messenger to apologise for his sudden coldness - to say
that Ed Miliband had him on the run
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Brooks is due to give evidence to the Leveson inquiry on Friday
David Cameron held two meetings with News International's Rebekah
Brooks, which were not included on the official Downing Street list of
such contacts, a book claimed last night.
At one meeting, they apparently texted each other to make sure they were
not seen together.
The Prime Minister also texted Mrs Brooks to tell her to ‘keep her head
up’ just days before she resigned as chief executive over phone hacking,
it has been revealed.
An updated biography of the Prime Minister said Mr Cameron told Mrs
Brooks, who is due to give evidence at the Leveson inquiry on Friday,
that she would get through her difficulties in the week of her
resignation.
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Friends:
David Cameron and Rebekah Wade at a book launch in 2009. An
updated biography of the PM claims he texted the former News
International chief executive just days before she resigned |
Contact between the two friends came to an ‘abrupt halt’ after she
stepped down.
However, the PM sent a messenger to Mrs Brooks to apologise for his
sudden coldness - telling her that Ed Miliband had him on the run.
The biography’s authors also claim that Mr Cameron asked the
Metropolitan Police to open a review into the Madeleine McCann case in
May 2011 as a favour for Mrs Brooks
The further revelations about Mr Cameron’s closeness with the former
News of the World editor will add to questions about the Prime
Minister’s judgement.
The pair are both members of the so-called Chipping Norton set - friends
and neighbours who live in south Oxfordshire.
It
has already emerged that the PM had ridden a horse named Raisa loaned to
Mrs Brooks by the Metropolitan Police.
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Close: Mr Cameron embraces the former News of
the World editor at a party |
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CAMERON'S CHRISTMAS DINNER REGRETS |
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Attending
the infamous Christmas dinner with Rebekah Brooks and James
Murdoch at which the BSkyB bid was discussed was a mistake,
David Cameron confessed two weeks ago.
The Prime
Minister insisted he made no 'grand deal' with the pair in
exchange for their media empire's support for the Tories.
Mr
Cameron admitted having a conversation with Mr Murdoch over
his father Rupert's proposed takeover of BSkyB at a party at
the Oxfordshire home of Mrs Brooks, who is now on police
bail in the phone-hacking investigation.
His
remarks came amid claims Mrs Brooks, a senior executive at
Rupert Murdoch's News International, is ready to disclose
all private email and text message exchanges with Mr
Cameron.
The
dinner party took place on December 23, 2010, just two days
after Business Secretary Vince Cable was stripped of
responsibility for adjudicating on the BSkyB deal after
boasting of having 'declared war' on the Murdoch empire.
Mr
Cameron claimed he did not recall the exact details of his
conversation with James Murdoch, but said it concerned the
controversy over Mr Cable. |
The book, Cameron: Practically A Conservative details how Mr Cameron and
Mrs Brooks would often ‘pop round to one another’s houses’.
The authors, Francis Elliott of The Times and James Hanning of The
Independent on Sunday, said: ‘The wider public might have liked to know
too of the text message that Charlie Brooks told friends Cameron sent to
Brooks at the beginning of the week in which she resigned, telling her
to keep her head up and she’d get through her difficulties.
‘Such contact came to an abrupt halt soon afterwards, with Brooks not
wanting to embarrass Cameron and he wanting to be able to say, hand on
heart, that they had not been in touch.
‘But it was claimed that Cameron did send an emissary to Brooks to
mitigate his sudden coldness towards her. The gist of the message was,
“Sorry I couldn’t have been as loyal to you as you have been to me, but
Ed Miliband had me on the run”.’
The book also includes a frank assessment by a Cabinet minister of the
relationship between governments and News International in general and
Mrs Brooks in particular.
‘If you are on the same side as her, you have to see her every week,’
said Oliver Letwin. ‘This was how it worked.’
The book, which will be serialised in The Times, also says royal
courtiers told Mr Cameron’s team that Buckingham Palace would think
poorly of a decision to take former News of the World editor Andy
Coulson into Downing Street. |
