Rupert Murdoch and former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher held a secret meeting at Chequers ahead of the media tycoon's takeover of Times newspapers, it has been revealed. Mr Murdoch personally lobbied the PM over Sunday lunch on January 4, 1981, Mrs Thatcher's files show. Neither party has ever admitted that such a meeting took place, but details of the meeting have now been uncovered in a note written by Mrs Thatcher’s press secretary Bernard Ingham and marked 'Commercial - In Confidence'. Power players: Rupert Murdoch and Margaret Thatcher, pictured at a New York awards dinner in 1991, have never admitted they met ahead of his Times newspapers takeover
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Talk over Sunday lunch came just weeks before Murdoch bid was approved by Government
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Neither party has ever admitted the chat took place
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PM was briefed on The Sun and News of the World owner's plans for the broadsheet
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Deal was not referred to monopolies and mergers committee
committee meeting on 26 January show that the @placeholder spoke to highlight the exemption under the