Revealed: Rishi Sunak’s dinner with Rupert Murdoch and 15 News Corp meetings with cabinet ministers since 2019

Rishi Sunak met with Rupert Murdoch to discuss his priorities as Prime Minister within months of entering Downing Street, NationalWorld can reveal.

The News Corp founder sat down for dinner with Sunak alongside other News Corp executives and the editors of The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun in December.

Murdoch has met with Sunak previously when he was chancellor, and had several meetings with Boris Johnson during his time in Downing Street. After becoming PM, Liz Truss’ first official meeting was with News Corp executive Robert Thomson. Senior News Corp executives have averaged more than four meetings a year since Boris Johnson took office in 2019.

15 meetings since mid-2019

On 21 December, Sunak had dinner with Murdoch, Thomson, News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks, and the editors of News UK’s titles, transparency releases show.

Earlier the same day, Sunak met with Lucasfilm, the production company behind Star Wars, to discuss “the business environment for the film and TV production sector in the UK,” and the business council, which is made up of executives from various high profile companies including Shell, Rolls Royce, Starling Bank and Citi Group.

This was Murdoch’s first official meeting with Sunak as PM, although the pair had previously met in June 2021 when Sunak was Chancellor, at a lunch meeting at an event held by The Times. Thomson, the most senior figure at News Corp besides Murdoch, met with Sunak twice as Chancellor, in April and February 2021.

There have been at least 15 meetings between cabinet ministers and senior News Corp executives since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in 2019 - averaging more than four meetings per year.

Johnson had five meetings with News Corp during his spell as PM, three of which involved Rupert Murdoch, including his last official meetings before announcing his intention to resign in July 2022.

Questions have previously been raised about the relationship between Johnson the highly influential media baron.

In October, a month after Johnson left office, Murdoch paid for the former PM to travel to Montana for a business meeting, at a cost of £11,559.84. It is unclear who the meeting was with. The Australian newspaper mogul is reported to have bought a large ranch in Montana in December 2021.

Murdoch had a private dinner with Michael Gove in August 2020, with Thomson following up the next month, while records show that Priti Patel had two private dinners with unnamed News Corp executives, in September 2020 and August 2021.