Mandelson: Sun and Tories in Faustian pact
The Sun dropped its support for Labour hours after Gordon Brown's conference speech in September
Wednesday, 11, Nov 2009 04:39
By Matthew Champion.
Lord Mandelson has said the apparent "contract" between the Tories and the Sun threatens the impartiality of all broadcasters for the next general election.
The Sun, which switched its allegiance to the Tories in September after 13 years of supporting Labour, has dominated the news agenda for the last two days with its coverage of a letter of condolence written by the prime minister to Jacqui Janes, whose son died in Afghanistan last month.
Business secretary Lord Mandelson has accused the tabloid of "bad taste and crude politicking" in its handling of the story, which it used to accused Gordon Brown of being insensitive and disrespectful towards UK troops and their families.
Mrs Janes contacted the paper after becoming angry at what she said were repeated spelling mistakes in the letter, while she also handed over a recording of an at-times heated phone-call with the prime minister when he contacted her to apologise.
Mr Brown, who has 30 per cent vision after losing the sight in one of his eyes as a student and writes in a large felt-tip pen, told journalists at a Downing St press conference yesterday that every time he had to read out the names of soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan or write letters to their loved ones he had to ask the question 'are we doing the right thing?', to which his answer remains "yes".
Speaking to the Today programme on Wednesday, Lord Mandelson said the public were unhappy with the Sun's treatment of the story, despite Mrs Janes' insistence that her complaints had "nothing to do with politics".
"If you look at the emails received overwhelmingly by the BBC, Sky News and the Sun itself, they have clearly made up their own mind about the Sun's mixture of bad taste and crude politicking," the business secretary said. "They don't like it and they've said so."
He went on to say that the Sun's owners, News International - in turn owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp -, had "effectively formed a contract" with the Tories.
"What the Sun can do for the Conservatives before and during the election is one part of that contract," he claimed. And presumably what the Conservatives can do for News International if they are elected is the other side of that bargain."
Although he said the public would be the ultimate judges of a problem that was "plain to see", he went on, Lord Mandelson argued the alliance raised a "wider question".
"When the Sun creates the news in this way, this is then followed up by Sky, which then puts pressure on the BBC to follow suit. And I think this has wider implications for the election, which, in my view, is of wider public concern," Lord Mandelson said.
"If you read the Sun, you would think that the enemy that our brave troops on the ground are fighting is the British government.
"Where do you see the reporting of our enemy, the Taliban in Afghanistan? Where do you see the reporting in the Sun of our forces' achievement and their bravery on the ground? I think that is the most significant aspect of all of this and it's really unattractive."