At precisely this point in the electoral cycle that led to Tony Blair’s first term as prime minister, the leader of the Labour party flew halfway around the world to meet Rupert Murdoch on Hayman Island, off Australia’s Queensland coast. Then, as now, Britain was two years away from an election the Labour party seemed destined to win. Then, as now, Labour had been out of power for a very long time indeed: 16 years then, 12 years now.
Hayman Island was a moment of history, acknowledged as such by Blair in private and subsequently in his memoirs: “I could feel [as we left Australia] we were in with a chance of winning the Sun’s support.” He was right. The tectonic plates moved fast inside News Corporation. Andrew Knight, hugely influential on the board, played a primary role completing the switch, as did Murdoch’s old friend Irwin Stelzer, a young Rebekah Wade (now Brooks), Les Hinton – moved from the US to oversee a more civilised regime in London – and Peter Stothard, who as editor of the Times was the man who actually invited Blair to Hayman.
