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Friday, May 11, 2012 10:15 AM UTC

Ex-tabloid chief: Cameron sent message when I quit

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Topics: From the Wires,

Ex-tabloid chief: Cameron sent message when I quitRebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, arrives at the High Court in London to give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, Friday, May 11, 2012. The Leveson Inquiry is Britain's media ethics probe that was set up in the wake of the scandal over phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, which was shut in July 2011 after it became clear that the tabloid had systematically broken the law. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)(Credit: AP)

LONDON (AP) — Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks — a pivotal figure in Britain’s tabloid phone hacking saga — told the country’s media ethics inquiry Friday that Prime Minister David Cameron commiserated with her after she quit in the wake of the scandal.

Brooks, 43, resigned in July as chief executive of News International, Murdoch’s British newspaper operation, and has twice been arrested and questioned by police about illegal eavesdropping and obstruction of justice.

She told the inquiry of her close ties to those in power and acknowledged she received messages of support from politicians including Cameron and former Prime Minister Tony Blair when she stepped down.

Known for her striking red curls and meteoric rise from secretary to editor at News of the World, Brooks acknowledged that Blair had also attended her 40th birthday party — hosted at Murdoch’s home.

The ethics inquiry is focusing on links between British politicians and the press, chiefly Murdoch’s media empire.

British parties of all political persuasions had long tussled for support of the mogul’s best-selling tabloids, whose backing was credited with the power to swing elections.

As the phone hacking scandal unfolded, unease has grown about what favors the newspapers may have received in return for editorial support.

Brooks acknowledged Friday that she had received “indirect messages” — seemingly SMS messages sent by the aides of politicians, but relaying their personal thoughts — after she stepped down.

“I received some indirect messages from No. 10, No. 11, the Home Office and Foreign Office,” Brooks said, referring to Cameron, Treasury chief George Osborne, Home Secretary Theresa May and Foreign Secretary William Hague.

She agreed with inquiry lawyer Robert Jay that a message from Cameron had told her to “keep your head up” and expressed regret that he could not be more loyal because of the political pressure he was under over the hacking scandal.

The message was “along those lines, I don’t think they were the exact words,” Brooks said.

Blair, who quit as Prime Minister in 2007, had also sent a message, but few other Labour Party politicians had been in touch, she said. Murdoch turned his back on the Labour Party before Britain’s 2010 election, offering backing to Conservative Party leader Cameron.

Gordon Brown, Blair’s Labour Party successor ousted in the 2010 vote, had not contacted her, the former executive said.

“He was probably getting the bunting out,” Brooks said, with a relaxed smile.

She showed composure, and occasional flashes of humor, as she testified.

“You need better sources Mr. Jay,” she teased, as the inquiry’s lawyer asked her about rumors over her close friendship with Murdoch.

Brooks, who had a close relationship to Brown’s wife Sarah, is a neighbor and friend of Cameron in the picturesque Cotswolds town of Chipping Norton.

The prime minister acknowledged that he has known her husband, racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, for 30 years and that he had recently ridden on a retired police horse that had been loaned to Rebekah Brooks.

As Brooks arrived for the hearing at London’s Royal Courts of Justice, she was confronted by protesters dressed as a horse.

Cameron set up the ethics inquiry, led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson, in July following revelations that the News of the World had hacked murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone after she disappeared in 2002.

Murdoch shut down the newspaper amid widespread public revulsion over the hacking.

Leveson’s inquiry has already examined newspapers’ relations with the public and the police.

More David Stringer.

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