[devilincarnate]

Rupert Murdoch sought assurances from then-PM Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s about policing of print union strikes, the Leveson Inquiry has been told.

In a written statement, ex-Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil disputed Mr Murdoch's claim that he had "never asked a prime minister for anything".

Mr Neil also wr

ote of Tony Blair and Mr Murdoch reaching "an understanding".

That "relationship became closer, more extensive and deeper than anything ... during the Thatcher years", he claimed.

"There was at least one time ... when Mr Murdoch's support for Mrs Thatcher paid business dividends and undermines the accuracy of his claim to the Inquiry that he has never asked politicians for anything," wrote Mr Neil, now a BBC presenter.

"In the run-up to the Wapping dispute he made it clear to me one night in late 1985 in my office that he had gone to Mrs Thatcher to get her assurance - to 'square Thatcher' in his words - that enough police would be made available to allow him to get his papers out past the massed pickets at Wapping once the dispute got underway."

Mr Murdoch received assurances from Mrs Thatcher, Mr Neil said, "on the grounds that she was doing no more than upholding the right of his company to go about its lawful business".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18789738