Monday, November 25, 2013

Murdoch and Tony Blair 'flirted' before Wendi Deng rumours swirled


Murdoch once told Blair: “If our flirtation is ever consummated, I suspect we will end up making love like porcupines”

Best of friends: Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch
Best of friends: Tony Blair and Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch once likened his relationship with Tony Blair to “making love like porcupines very, very carefully”.

The backing of Murdoch’s media empire was a crucial factor in three Labour election victories, keeping Blair in office from 1997 to 2007.

Murdoch-owned newspapers had backed the Tories for 20 years so the switch marked a major change in British politics.

Blair became a Murdoch family friend – making him closer to the clan than even Margaret Thatcher – and became godfather to Rupert and Wendi’s daughter Grace in 2010.

Murdoch admitted to the Leveson inquiry last year that he once told Blair: “If our flirtation is ever consummated, Tony, I suspect we will end up making love like porcupines very, very carefully.”

But he denied throwing the weight of his newspapers behind any political party.

Blair met wife Cherie in 1975 while they were both training as barristers.

Cherie became a high-flying lawyer but found herself in the glare of the media spotlight several times while Labour was in power.

Questions were raised over her friendship with lifestyle guru Carole Caplin whose ex-boyfriend, convicted fraudster Peter Foster, helped Cherie buy two flats in Bristol in 2002.

Mirror