News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch has further criticised former legal adviser Harbottle & Lewis in his testimony to the Leveson Inquiry, which also saw him lay blame on former News of the World legal manager Tom Crone for his role in an alleged phone-hacking ‘cover-up’.

In reference to Harbottle’s role advising the company during a 2007 investigation into phone-hacking at News International, Murdoch said today (26 April) that he could not understand a law firm reading the emails they were given and “not ringing the chief executive of a company and saying, ‘Hey, you’ve got some big problems’.”