The PR guru Matthew Freud, who was married to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth, has warned Sir Keir Starmer against chasing an election endorsement from The Sun.
In a rare broadcast interview Mr Freud, the influential communications chief who advises prime ministers and celebrities, said democracy is being undermined by politicians seeking to win the favour of his former father-in-law.
Mr Freud, who accused Mr Murdoch of damaging standards of journalism through various branches of his print and television empire, told the Labour leader that standing firm against newspaper demands to sack under-fire deputy Angela Rayner is now a key test of his credentials to become prime minister.
Appearing on the BBC Sounds podcast When It Hits The Fan, Mr Freud was asked by former The Sun editor David Yelland why Starmer’s team was “having meetings with Rebekah Brooks (News UK CEO) and going full pelt for a Labour endorsement” from the newspaper.
Freud replied: “I think if you live in a playground with bullies in it, if the bullies aren’t your friend, you lose your lunch money. It’s better to ignore them.”
A former Downing Street adviser to Tony Blair, Freud, whose 13-year marriage to Elisabeth Murdoch ended in 2014, said of 93-year-old media mogul, Rupert: “I suspect history will not judge him generously.”
“Fox News is a terrible chapter. The American TV news industry was the best in the world. And what Fox created was a masquerading news channel, it wasn’t a news channel, it was created to be a propaganda machine.
“And democracies don’t thrive if there isn’t a clear role for the fourth estate. I think the company that was behind Fox News (News Corp) had performed a similar role in the British print media.”
Mr Freud first expressed his disdain for Fox News back in 2010, when he was still married to Elisabeth Murdoch.
On When It Hits The Fan, he said a new Labour government should focus on “trying to serve the people” instead of seeking to “placate a partisan media”.
If the Opposition party’s poll lead looks solid, Starmer will probably get the election endorsement Labour is seeking from from The Sun since “what history has shown at News UK is they like to back a winner”, Mr Freud said.
“But I think they will pay a high price for that support so (seeking it) would be ill advised.”
He advised Starmer to “ignore the media”.
Told by Mr Yelland that Mr Murdoch and his editors would be calling on the Labour leader to drop Ms Rayner, to end the ongoing row over her council home sale, Mr Freud asked: “What kind of country are we sitting in where an editor and a proprietor should be allowed to dictate to a not yet-elected government the terms of engagement? That’s a terrifying truth.”
“It is in the Labour Party’s power to decide they will not be bullied into jettisoning a woman who I think is the most interesting person to come into politics.”
Brought in to Downing Street to advise Mr Blair’s team after Labour’s 1997 landslide, Mr Freud said the experience had demonstrated the folly of trying to govern through media management techniques.
“What I witnessed was people making important decisions, and asking for counsel about how they thought those decisions would be perceived. And I think that’s really dangerous,” he said.
“I think when you’re trying to make important decisions, weighing up, or allowing perception or the selling of those opinions, to influence what the opinions are, is counterproductive.
“So I think if you’re conscious of what the newspapers are going to say, the next day, then you’re making very short-term decisions.”
It had been a “mistake” for both Mr Blair and Mr Murdoch to forge such a close relationship when Labour was last in power, he believed.
Described as a member of the Oxfordshire “Chipping Norton” set, which once included Ms Brooks and David Cameron, Mr Freud said the former Prime Minister, who has returned to politics as Foreign Secretary, was the last Conservative leader worthy of Downing Street.
Mr Cameron’s experience of “sleeping on hospital floors” when caring for disabled son Ivan, who died aged six after suffering from a rare form of epilepsy, allowed him an insight into the struggles of ordinary people, Mr Freud argued.
Mr Freud founded the Freud Communications agency in 1985. His client list includes rock stars, celebrities and politicians, with the PR chief often called in when a public figure finds themselves caught in a crisis.
After watching the hit TV show Succession, Mr Freud said he might have been an inspiration for the character of Tom Wambsgans, played by Matthew Macfadyen, who enjoys a tempestuous marriage with Logan Roy’s ambitious daughter Shiv.
Mr Murdoch’s News UK, publisher of The Sun, declined to comment.
Mr Murdoch moved to a new role of “chairman emeritus” at News Corp last year after handing daily control of his empire to son, Lachlan. Mr Murdoch is said to keep a close eye over the business which extends from the Wall Street Journal and book publisher HarperCollins to NFL games on Fox TV in the US.
The Murdoch portfolio was significantly reduced by the $71bn sale of its film and TV studio businesses to Disney in 2019.
When It Hits The Fan is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday at 4.30pm and available on BBC Sounds