Miliband says Murdoch has 'too much power'

NEWS Corp executives were back in crisis talks yesterday amid claims that Rupert Murdoch's children are at war over the company's meltdown.

The media magnate's daughter Elisabeth had reportedly blamed the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks for wrecking the company.

She denied the claim but yesterday a witness insisted the quote was accurate and that she also blamed her brother James.

Michael Wolff, Rupert Murdoch's biographer, tweeted: "Reports Elisabeth Murdoch said Rebekah Brooks  the company' are incomplete.

"She said, 'James and Rebekah the company.

'"Elisabeth was alleged to have made the comment at a book party for Labour pollster Philip Gould.

James, 38, chairman of News International, was widely regarded as the heir to his father's media empire but he has been left exposed by the resignation of Brooks, who went on the same day as his father's right-hand man Les Hinton resigned in New York.

Now industry observers predict a battle between James and his sister to take charge of News Corporation.

Wolff said: "James is essentially out of business. He cannot run the company. He is no longer the heir.

In an interview with The Observer newspaper Mr Miliband said: 'I think it is unhealthy because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation.'

Mr Murdoch's News International has placed further advertisements in British Sunday newspapers today, insisting it would put right what went wrong at the News of the World.

The adverts say there is no place to hide and no excuse for wrong-doing.

Mr Murdoch pledged to fully cooperate with inquiries by police, who themselves are under mounting pressure.

They are accused of being too close to News Corp, of accepting cash from the now defunct News of the World tabloid that was at the heart of the scandal, and from other newspapers, and of not doing enough to investigate phone-hacking allegations that surfaced as far as back as 2005.

Britain's senior police chief Paul Stephenson came under renewed pressure late on Saturday after it emerged he had stayed at a luxury spa at which Neil Wallis, a former News of the World deputy editor, was a public relations adviser.

A police statement said Stephenson did not know of Wallis's connection with the spa, and his stay was paid for by the spa's managing director, a family friend with no links to his professional life.