Claim of a Deal Between The Sun and Starmer Is 'Conspiracy Theory Created For Clicks', News UK Insiders Say
Claims that the Prime Minister and The Sun struck a 'deal' to suppress an alleged story about Keir Starmer's marriage - and for Labour to receive the newspaper's backing in July's General Election - have been dismissed as "complete fantasy" at the Murdoch title.
Senior News UK sources have taken the unusual step of briefing against the "nakedly untrue" allegations that a Starmer Government, in return, would not pursue the second part of the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, ethics, and practices of the British press, which was launched in the wake of the exposure of the phone-hacking scandal in 2011.
One source told Byline Times: "There's a feeling that because The Sun is always giving it, we should never respond when we take a few hits. But we are strong on this point: there is just no truth to it - it's a conspiracy theory for clicks, nothing more."
There is no suggestion that The Sun ever had, or believed it had, any legitimate grounds to invade the Prime Minister's right to his family and private life.
The allegation was made on a vlog run by former Sun employee, Dan Wootton, and repeated on X (formerly Twitter) by the newspaper's former editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, who became notorious for falsely smearing the dead of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster on its front page in 1989.
Wootton's vlog post, and his X posts relating to it - as well as that of MacKenzie - have since been deleted. It is not known whether the pair came under pressure to do so by News UK and its lawyers.
Former Sun and MailOnline senior editor Wootton alleged in the vlog post that The Sun dropped an "investigation" into the Starmer's marriage in the run-up to the July election.
He claimed to have access to "insider" information from The Sun, alleging that it had "duped" its readers by dropping an investigation into the Prime Minister's "personal life" after Editor Victoria Newton - who Wootton described as "a Starmer fan girl" - cut an "astonishing" deal which saw it "inexplicably" back Labour and "left executives… torn for many weeks".
Related reading: #MediaWatch: Supping with the Devil with a Long Spoon
The arrangement, Wootton alleged, saw News UK accept a "cast-iron guarantee" that a Labour Government would not launch the second part of the Leveson Inquiry, which was intended to examine the relationship between journalists and the police, and which would also likely have addressed allegations that several prominent witnesses gave wrong evidence to Leveson 1.
Wootton left his role as a presenter on GB News last year following an on-air misogyny scandal involving actor-turned-activist Laurence Fox. It came after a three-year investigation by Byline Times unmasked him as the prolific catfish and sexual blackmailer "Martin Branning".
According to the source, Wootton is "an embittered former employee who is just trying to be a nuisance and to make money by running a conspiracy blog" and that it is "the right thing to step in and call this out as utter bollocks from Wootton".
Another senior source at News UK told Byline Times that "Wootton's claims are nakedly untrue" and that he "has no insights into the activity and decisions at this newspaper".
"No one here - certainly none of the executives who would know about any such matter - likes him or wants to talk to him," they added.
Another source at the newspaper said of the supposed arrangement: "No such deal was done with Starmer. It simply did not happen. It is a complete fantasy."
The endorsement of Wootton's claims by MacKenzie - who has been repeatedly critical of the newspaper's current management - generated many dozens of replies alleging a "conspiracy" or "blackmail" by the title.
An investigation by this newspaper last month revealed that Victoria Newton had overseen the suppression of major public interest stories about household names in return for favours.
Related reading: 'Starmer Cosied Up to the Murdoch Press in the
Senior News UK sources have taken the unusual step of briefing against the "nakedly untrue" allegations that a Starmer Government, in return, would not pursue the second part of the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, ethics, and practices of the British press, which was launched in the wake of the exposure of the phone-hacking scandal in 2011.
One source told Byline Times: "There's a feeling that because The Sun is always giving it, we should never respond when we take a few hits. But we are strong on this point: there is just no truth to it - it's a conspiracy theory for clicks, nothing more."
There is no suggestion that The Sun ever had, or believed it had, any legitimate grounds to invade the Prime Minister's right to his family and private life.
The allegation was made on a vlog run by former Sun employee, Dan Wootton, and repeated on X (formerly Twitter) by the newspaper's former editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, who became notorious for falsely smearing the dead of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster on its front page in 1989.
Wootton's vlog post, and his X posts relating to it - as well as that of MacKenzie - have since been deleted. It is not known whether the pair came under pressure to do so by News UK and its lawyers.
Former Sun and MailOnline senior editor Wootton alleged in the vlog post that The Sun dropped an "investigation" into the Starmer's marriage in the run-up to the July election.
He claimed to have access to "insider" information from The Sun, alleging that it had "duped" its readers by dropping an investigation into the Prime Minister's "personal life" after Editor Victoria Newton - who Wootton described as "a Starmer fan girl" - cut an "astonishing" deal which saw it "inexplicably" back Labour and "left executives… torn for many weeks".
Related reading: #MediaWatch: Supping with the Devil with a Long Spoon
The arrangement, Wootton alleged, saw News UK accept a "cast-iron guarantee" that a Labour Government would not launch the second part of the Leveson Inquiry, which was intended to examine the relationship between journalists and the police, and which would also likely have addressed allegations that several prominent witnesses gave wrong evidence to Leveson 1.
Wootton left his role as a presenter on GB News last year following an on-air misogyny scandal involving actor-turned-activist Laurence Fox. It came after a three-year investigation by Byline Times unmasked him as the prolific catfish and sexual blackmailer "Martin Branning".
According to the source, Wootton is "an embittered former employee who is just trying to be a nuisance and to make money by running a conspiracy blog" and that it is "the right thing to step in and call this out as utter bollocks from Wootton".
Another senior source at News UK told Byline Times that "Wootton's claims are nakedly untrue" and that he "has no insights into the activity and decisions at this newspaper".
"No one here - certainly none of the executives who would know about any such matter - likes him or wants to talk to him," they added.
Another source at the newspaper said of the supposed arrangement: "No such deal was done with Starmer. It simply did not happen. It is a complete fantasy."
The endorsement of Wootton's claims by MacKenzie - who has been repeatedly critical of the newspaper's current management - generated many dozens of replies alleging a "conspiracy" or "blackmail" by the title.
An investigation by this newspaper last month revealed that Victoria Newton had overseen the suppression of major public interest stories about household names in return for favours.
Related reading: 'Starmer Cosied Up to the Murdoch Press in the
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