LIZ Truss’s first external meeting as prime minister was with the head of Rupert Murdoch’s publishing firm which owns The Times and The Sun, new records have revealed.
Information published by the Cabinet Office have shown that Truss – who lasted just 44 days in post – rushed to meet with Robert Thomson, the CEO of News Corp, which is the ultimate owner of News UK – Murdoch’s British publishing arm.
The records show that the meeting – her first with figures outside the Government – was held on September 20, exactly a fortnight after she took office.
The Cabinet Office recorded the purpose of the meeting as: “To discuss the priorities of the new government.”
Thomson has been the chief executive of News Corp since 2013 and previously served at the Murdoch titles The Wall Street Journal in the states and The Times in London.
A 2013 profile of Thomson in the Sydney Morning Herald – where he had previously worked as a senior feature writer in the eighties – described him as “arguably the world's most powerful newspaperman”.
Truss’s rise to power and her catastrophic downfall are covered in a new book by The Sun’s political editor.
She was perceived to have lost the paper’s support after the disastrous mini-Budget, with The Sun’s front page on the day after Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tore it up in the Commons branding her the “ghost PM”.
A Scottish Greens spokesperson said the meeting showed the ex-prime minister's focus had been "looking good in the press" rather than tackling the challenges facing the country.
They said: "While a decade of Tory economic mismanagement meant inflation at record levels, energy bills sky-rocketing, the Bank of England forecasting a year long recession, and people facing an impossible choice between heating and eating, Liz Truss and her Tory government had a laser-like focus on looking good in the press as they gave tax cuts to their super wealthy mates.
“This won’t come as a surprise to anyone with experience of living under the Tories.”
