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Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng
Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng: invited to Boris's Olympic 'schmoozathon'. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images
Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng: invited to Boris's Olympic 'schmoozathon'. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

Boris Johnson invites Rupert Murdoch as personal guest to Olympic event

This article is more than 11 years old
London mayor invites tycoon and wife Wendi Deng poolside to watch Rebecca Adlington defend 800 metre swimming gold

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has invited Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng as his personal guests to watch Rebecca Adlington defend her 800 metre swimming gold at the 2012 Olympics on Friday.

The tycoon and his wife will sit poolside with the Conservative politician and other business leaders at the high-profile event, for what Johnson describes as his "schmoozathon".

The Guardian understands the invitation was due not just to Murdoch's business role but his investment in British sport through his News Corporation companies, in particular BSkyB, over the years.

But the decision of Johnson, who in his role as mayor has oversight of Scotland Yard, to "schmooze" the News International proprietor while a Metropolitan police investigation into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal involving the company is still under way, provoked dismay among his political opponents.

Jenny Jones, a green party member of the London assembly who sits on the police and crime committee, said inviting Murdoch was "inappropriate" and showed "appalling judgment".

Jones said: "Johnson seems to think he can get away with anything but there is always a step too far and this could be it. Most people will be appalled that he has taken someone who heads up a company that is currently involved in a criminal investigation."

Johnson had responsibility for chairing the now-defunct Metropolitan Police Authority when in 2010 he controversially dismissed as "codswallop" early allegations that phone hacking was more widespread on the News of the World than a single "rogue" reporter.

Since the full scale of phone hacking at News International came to light, he has steadfastly refused to condemn Murdoch.

Johnson effectively became the first elected police commissioner in the country when the MPA was disbanded and replaced by the mayor's office for policing and crime. He delegated the role to his deputy mayor of policing, Kit Malthouse. The role is now held by Stephen Greenhalgh.

City Hall defended the mayor's decision to invite Murdoch.

The mayor's spokesman said: "As the mayor has always said he would use the Games to shamelessly promote London as the leading business hub in Europe. With that aim in mind he's meeting and will continue to meet a range of business and media executives at or on the margins of Olympic events to further London's drive for investment that will spur jobs and growth."

The move comes just weeks after the London mayor was forced to deny there was an attempt to conceal a meeting with Murdoch that took place as the phone-hacking scandal was gathering momentum in early 2011.

Johnson's office said an "administrative error" meant details of the meeting in January last year were not published for 10 months.

The Conservative mayor, a former journalist who now writes a regular column in the Daily Telegraph, "dropped into dinner" dinner at Murdoch's London home on 24 January 2011, just two days before the Metropolitan police launched a new phone-hacking investigation, Operation Weeting. The dinner took place three days after Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor and No 10 director of communications, resigned from the government role, saying the phone-hacking scandal was making it impossible to do his job.

Len Duvall, leader of the Labour group on the London Assembly said: "There are serious questions as to the appropriateness of Boris Johnson taking Mr Murdoch to the Olympics. An internal City Hall investigation is still underway after it was discovered the Mayor had failed to declare meetings with Mr Murdoch. I do not think it is appropriate for the Mayor to be entertaining Mr Murdoch in this way.

"As I've said before, for the Mayor to not declare a meeting with Rupert Murdoch at the height of the phone-hacking crisis is truly scandalous."

Amid the controversy about access to tickets despite a number of empty seats at the Games, a spokesman for the mayor stressed that the tickets were not funded by the taxpayer, but came from Johnson's allocation of 506 Olympic tickets sponsored by private companies through London & Partners — a London-wide agency to promote business in the capital.

Johnson's spokesman was also at pains to stress the mayor had offered 2012 Games tickets to 39 people "who suffered the most severe and life-changing injuries and to the families of the 52 people who lost their lives" in the 7/7 terrorist bombings.

City Hall pointed out that Alan Rusbridger, editor in chief of the Guardian, was also invited to a meeting with Johnson during the Games. He declined the invitation due to a diary clash.

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