CAMERON: NO DEALS WITH MURDOCH

British Prime Minister David Cameron has dismissed as “nonsense” the suggestion that he had reached an agreement with Rupert Murdoch to push through Murdoch’s plan to take over full ownership of satellite broadcaster BSkyB in return for support from Murdoch’s newspapers in the general election. In testimony before the Leveson committee, which is looking into ethical pitfalls in the relationship between reporters and lawmakers, Cameron said, “On this idea of overt deals, this idea that somehow the Conservative party and News International got together and said: ‘You give us your support and we’ll wave through this merger’ – which by the way we didn’t even know about at that stage – I think the idea of overt deals is nonsense.” Cameron acknowledged that he attempted to win the support of the press, “But I didn’t do it on the basis of saying either overtly or covertly ‘your support will mean I’ll give you a better time on this policy or that policy.”