Rebekah and her best pal Tony: Blair's advice to 'hacking' boss... tough up and take sleeping pills

Bombshell email from Brooks to James Murdoch read to Old Bailey today

It was written in July 2011 when News International chief was arrested



In hour-long call former PM told her 'it'll pass' and to take sleeping pills

Mr Blair also told he to publish a 'Hutton-style' report after investigation

Lord Hutton investigated suicide of Dr David Kelly and blamed the BBC, not the Labour government, over claims they 'sexed-up' WMDs dossier



On trial: Rebekah Brooks arrives at the Old Bailey today, which heard an email claiming that she was secretly advised by Tony Blair at the height of the hacking scandal in 2011

Tony Blair offered himself as an unofficial adviser to Rebekah Brooks and her boss Rupert Murdoch at the height of the phone-hacking scandal, it was revealed yesterday.

The former Prime Minister offered advice on how to defuse the scandal and told Brooks to ‘keep strong... it will pass, tough up’, the Old Bailey heard.

He said the News International chief executive should keep taking sleeping pills to help her through the crisis.

Mr Blair also suggested she should set up an independent inquiry and ‘publish a Hutton-style report’ – an apparent reference to the 2003 inquiry into the death of weapons inspector David Kelly.

The inquiry exonerated Mr Blair and other officials over the Labour Government’s ‘dodgy dossier’ that claimed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and which had been used to help justify the invasion of Iraq by British and American troops.

Mr Blair urged Brooks to keep his advice ‘between us’, the phone-hacking trial was told.Brooks told Mr Murdoch’s son James, then News International’s executive chairman, that she had had an hour-long phone call with Mr Blair about the crisis at the News of the World.

She summarised his advice in an email, sent six days before she was arrested and the day after the News of the World was shut because of public anger over hacking.

The revelation of Mr Blair’s behind-the-scenes contact with Brooks could be politically embarrassing for Labour, which has sought to distance itself from accusations it was too close to the Murdoch empire.

Chain: The hacking trial was read this email from Brooks to James Murdoch, where she outlined an hour long conversation she had with the former prime minister

Close: Then Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks to Rebekah Brooks, then Wade, when she was editor of The Sun. He told her to stay calm and take sleeping pills, the Old Bailey heard

His advice appears to have been given at the same time that Labour leader Ed Miliband was leading calls for Mr Murdoch’s grip on UK media to be dramatically reduced, arguing that he had ‘too much power over British public life’.



2003: Prime Minister Tony Blair looking happy in Downing Street after the publication of the Hutton Report

A spokesman for Mr Blair – who is godfather to one of Mr Murdoch’s daughters – said he had given informal advice and had recommended a fully transparent and independent inquiry.

Mr Blair’s involvement was revealed to the jury as Brooks’ email to James Murdoch was read out in court.

No evidence was given about when Mr Blair spoke to Brooks, although her email was sent on July 11, 2011. In it Brooks told James Murdoch that she had spent an hour on the phone with Mr Blair discussing how to handle the phone-hacking crisis.

He had advised her to set up an independent inquiry chaired by ‘a great and good type’ such as former Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald.

Mr Blair had suggested that the first part of the Hutton-style report would be published at the same time as the police inquiry closed, clearing Brooks but accepting any ‘shortcomings’.

Part two of the report would be published after any trials.

Brooks wrote that Mr Blair had said: ‘Keep strong and definitely sleeping pills. Need to have clear heads and remember no rash short-term solutions as they only give you long-term headaches. It will pass. Tough up.’

She told James Murdoch: ‘He is available for you, KRM [Rupert Murdoch] and me as an unofficial adviser but need to be between us.’

The jury has heard that Brooks asked her PAs to organise a meeting with Mr Macdonald on July 6 and as heard that Brooks was being prescribed sleeping pills for insomnia at the time.

The scene in court today as the prosecutor read out an e-mail which was allegedly written in 2011 from Brooks to her then boss Rupert Murdoch, claiming Tony Blair offered her advice on how to deal with the phone hacking scandal



Case: Dr David Kelly, left, killed himself shortly after he was named by the Ministry of Defence as a contact who reportedly briefed then BBC correspondent Andrew Gilligan, right, about the Iraqi weapons programme

In a series of emails to James Murdoch, she sought to protect her position within News International.

Then on July 11, before the Blair email, she told Mr Murdoch that the sales figures for the final edition of the News of the World had been close to four million.

Brooks added: ‘So much for a sales boycott’ – a reference to supposed public reaction to the scandal.

He replied: ‘What are you doing on email?’

The email exchanges formed part of the final evidence put forward by the prosecution, which formally came to an end yesterday. Brooks, 45, is due to start her defence today, when she is expected to be called to give evidence.

A spokesman for Mr Blair said in a statement yesterday: ‘This was Mr Blair simply giving informal advice over the phone.

Long case: Former News Of The World editor Andy Coulson, left, is also on trial along with several others including Mark Hanna, former head of security at News International, right



‘He made it absolutely clear to Ms Brooks that, though he knew nothing personally about the facts of the case, in a situation as serious as this it was essential to have a fully transparent and independent process to get to the bottom of what had happened.

‘That inquiry should be led by credible people, get all the facts out there and that if anything wrong were found there should be immediate action taken and the changes to the organisation made so that they could not happen again.

‘Mr Blair said that if what he was being told by her was correct, and there had been no wrongdoing, then a finding to that effect by a credible inquiry would be far better than an internal and therefore less credible investigation.’

Brooks, a former editor of the News of the World and The Sun, denies conspiring to hack phones, commit misconduct or pervert the course of justice.

All seven defendants in the trial, including Brooks’ husband Charlie and Andy Coulson, her successor as News of the World editor, deny all the charges against them.

The trial continues.