Blair, Murdoch Spoke Three Times In Run-Up To Iraq War

In final days leading up to the Iraq war, then-prime minister Tony Blair spoke three times with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose newspapers and broadcast outlets were among the strongest supporters of launching the war, the government has revealed.

The government, in responding to a freedom of information request filed by an opposition lawmaker, didn’t say what Blair and Murdoch discussed in the three telephone conversations. But the timing of them is likely to renew speculation about the extent of Murdoch’s influence in the former U.K. government.

The calls took place on March 11, 13 and 19, 2003, according to a document released to Lord Avebury, who spent three years seeking access to the information.

A spokesman for Blair refused to comment on the disclosure.

Murdoch’s U.K. newspapers - including The Sun and The Times - had been crucial supporters of Blair since he took office in 1997, and were staunch supporters of the Iraq war.

Avebury said the disclosure offered the public an opportunity to scrutinize the contacts between the duo to see if they could be linked to events in the outside world.

“Rupert Murdoch has exerted his influence behind the scenes on a range of policies on which he is known to have strong views, including the regulation of broadcasting and the Iraq war,” Avebury said in a statement.

Blair watchers said the disclosures came as no surprise.

“I don’t think it was friendship,” said Anthony Seldon, a Blair biographer. ” Blair needed him because he was the most powerful press figure in the country.”

Blair has been close to the magnate ever since The Sun gave him its backing two months before his first election victory.

In 2006, Blair traveled to California to deliver a key note speech to a gathering of News Corp. executives.

Lance Price, a press secretary for Blair in 1998-2001, described the close relationship between the two men in his book “The Spin Doctor’s Diary,” referring to Murdoch as “the 24th member of Cabinet.”

“His presence was always felt. No big decision could ever be made … without taking account of the likely reaction of three men: Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Rupert Murdoch,” he wrote.

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