{"id":24038,"date":"2013-01-28T12:32:54","date_gmt":"2013-01-28T11:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.co.uk\/2013\/01\/28\/london-mayor-under-fire-media-mogul-lunch-guest_n_2565680.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics?ncid=GEP"},"modified":"2013-01-28T15:37:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-28T14:37:25","slug":"boris-johnson-under-fire-for-murdoch-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/boris-johnson-under-fire-for-murdoch-links\/","title":{"rendered":"Boris Johnson Under Fire For Murdoch Links"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Boris Johnson<\/a> was accused of “totally inappropriate” contacts with Rupert Murdoch<\/a> after it was revealed he attended a private dinner<\/a> at the media mogul’s home<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The London Mayor<\/a> defied critics again by joining a number of high-profile guests including Homeland actor Damian Lewis at the gathering.<\/p>\n

His office said it would not comment on the Mayor’s “private engagements” but Johnson has never shied away from admitting close contacts with the News Corporation<\/a> boss.<\/p>\n

He was previously criticised for inviting Murdoch<\/a> and his wife as Olympic Games guests and the latest encounter prompted claims of a conflict of interest over Scotland Yard<\/a> investigations involving Murdoch-owned newspapers.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for campaign group Hacked Off<\/a>, which represents some high-profile victims of phone hacking, said: “It beggars belief that anyone could describe a dinner between the most powerful politician in London and the head of News Corporation, the company at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal, as a ‘private arrangement’.<\/p>\n

“The Mayor is also in charge of the Metropolitan Police Authority<\/a> and it is totally inappropriate for him to be meeting Murdoch in private while the Met are carrying out an investigation into Murdoch companies.<\/p>\n

“We urge all politicians to comply with the Leveson<\/a> recommendations and publish full and up-to-date accounts of their meetings with media proprietors and editors.<\/p>\n

“Given their past record of excessive closeness, and all the harm it has done, that is the very least the public can expect from those who represent them.”<\/p>\n

Len Duvall, leader of the Labour<\/a> group at the London Assembly<\/a>, said: “He is the Mayor of London and has a duty to uphold the highest standards.<\/p>\n

“Does he really think meeting for a private dinner with Rupert Murdoch is a normal meeting? What planet does he live on?”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boris Johnson was accused of “totally inappropriate” contacts with Rupert Murdoch after it was revealed he attended a private dinner at the media mogul’s home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,18,1615],"tags":[55],"class_list":{"0":"post-24038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news","7":"category-latest-news","8":"category-uk-news","9":"tag-uk-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}