Business secretary privately met media mogul in apparent breach of ministerial code of conduct
Kemi Badenoch failed to declare a meeting that she held with Rupert Murdoch days after she was appointed to the cabinet – in a breach of transparency rules.
The business and trade secretary reacted angrily on Monday on social media after it was revealed that she had privately met the media mogul and other executives from his News Corp company in New York in September 2022.
Murdoch was reported by Politico to have questioned Badenoch for 20 minutes in an atmosphere that was said to have been described as akin to a job interview by one of those present.
A government spokesperson described the fact that the meeting with Murdoch was not made public as “an oversight”.
Nevertheless, the failure to declare the meeting appears to have contravened the ministerial code of conduct, which states: “Meetings with newspaper and other media proprietors, editors and senior executives will be published on a quarterly basis, regardless of the purpose of the meeting.”
…