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Rupert Murdoch: 'I hope my daughter isn't friends with David Cameron'

Media mogul takes to Twitter amid continuing rumours

Lizzie Dearden
Monday 28 July 2014 15:56 BST
Elisabeth Murdoch: The 44-year-old said she felt a responsibility to 'stand up and be counted’'
Elisabeth Murdoch: The 44-year-old said she felt a responsibility to 'stand up and be counted’' (PA)

Rupert Murdoch has taken to Twitter to distance himself from continuing rumours of a friendship between his daughter Elisabeth and David Cameron.

The media mogul said he had been asked about their relationship in the unexpected post.

He wrote: “Asked is my daughter friend of David Cameron? Don’t know, but hope not. Really not my business.”

The post, in the early hours of Monday, may have been sent from the US, where Mr Murdoch previously said he was visiting his daughter at a children's summer camp.

The Leveson Inquiry exposed the close relationships enjoyed by politicians and media executives in the so-called “Chipping Norton set”, including Ms Murdoch and her husband, the PR executive Matthew Freud.

The Prime Minister attended his 50th birthday party in November last year alongside George Osborne, despite publicly distancing himself from former News International executives in the wake of the phone hacking scandal and “horsegate”.

In 2012, Mr Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry he had met the Conservative Party leader at “family picnics” at his daughter’s house.

While he was the Leader of the Opposition in 2008, Mr Cameron also accepted free flights on Mr Freud’s private jet to hold talks with Mr Murdoch on a luxury yacht off a Greek island.

Mr Cameron also attended Ms Murdoch’s 40th birthday party in the Cotswolds, where Tony Blair, David Miliband, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson were among the guests.

Ms Murdoch, 45, left senior positions in her father’s corporation to found her own production company, Shine, in 2001.

She sold it to News Corporation in 2011 for £415 million and is still the chairman of the company, having reportedly turned down a seat alongside her brothers and father on the News Corp board.

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