News Corporation head Rupert Murdoch has alleged that one of his group’s legal advisers, Harbottle & Lewis, made “a major mistake” in its part in an internal investigation into phone-hacking at the media mogul’s newspaper business.

Murdoch made the comments in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published today (15 July), citing “a major mistake” on the London law firm’s part in an investigation carried out four years ago into the scale of phone-hacking at Murdoch’s UK newspaper arm.