Met looks at ex-Murdoch chief over deleted emails

A British police special inquiry team is examining allegations that Will Lewis, now the chief executive of the Washington Post, presided over the deliberate destruction of emails at Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper business when he worked for the company 13 years ago.

- Dan Sabbagh

The Met has told the former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown that its standing unit responsible for high-profile cases is reviewing a complaint he had submitted about Lewis after fresh disclosures emerged during civil actions relating to the phone-hacking scandal.

The letter, seen by the Guardian, is signed by the Met's most senior officer, Mark Rowley, and tells Brown: "Please be assured that the contents of your letter, dated 2 May 2024, is being considered by the Met's special inquiry team."

The police chief adds: "The issues you raise are complex and will take time to consider against investigations that have already taken place."

Brown's original letter to Rowley had urged him to review new evidence relating to "the concealment and destruction of up to 30 million emails, hard drives and documents"and police to launch an investigation "into the destruction of evidence" and "the cover-up that followed".

In response, Brown, writing in the Guardian, questions whether Lewis is an appropriate leader for the flagship US newspaper owned by the billionaire founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos - accusing Lewis of displaying a "lack of ethics" when he worked for Murdoch during the hacking scandal.

"Blazoned across the top of every edition of the Washington Post is the statement 'Democracy dies in darkness.' But what if the publisher himself is a master of the dark arts?" Brown says.

The former PM goes on to accuse Lewis of trying to mislead British detectives investigating phone hacking at the News of the World in the summer of 2011 - by telling police that Brown himself was behind a plot to steal emails of senior executives at the tabloid's UK owner, Murdoch's News International.