Murdoch-owned British tabloid The Sun’s endorsement of Labour and Keir Starmer was unusual but should have come as no surprise.
It’s about “backing a winning horse”, a media expert told Crikey. And as a former Sun editor argued on the social media platform X, supporting the government of the day carries potential benefits for News Corp.
According to the Financial Times, Lachlan Murdoch, the chair of News Corp, “took a personal role in deciding to back Labour [and] was in the Sun’s newsroom on Wednesday with editor Victoria Newton”.
The story said editors at The Sun found it particularly difficult to decide on an endorsement in this election: “There are lots of negatives this time to endorsing one party in the way it will alienate people,” an unnamed editor said.
Kelvin MacKenzie, who edited The Sun between 1981 and 1994, wrote on X that the elder Murdoch preferred to make his endorsements early.
“At general elections Rupert Murdoch always told me that to receive the best political rewards (for the company) The Sun should publish a front-page party endorsement nice and early,” MacKenzie wrote.
“He thought coming late to the party didn’t work for his commercial interests. With only two days to go, The Sun has clearly abandoned that idea.”
In another post, MacKenzie criticised The Sun for writing in its editorial: “Our commitment has always been to hold the government’s feet to the fire.”
“The reality is that if you, as an editor, went off-piste and attacked a PM Murdoch had endorsed you could collect your P45 that evening,” he wrote, referencing a document that’s handed to employees when they leave a workplace.
Stockholm University Journalism Professor Christian Christensen told Crikey the endorsement was far from surprising.
“He’s backing a winning horse, and Murdoch has a number of things that he’s interested in … Murdoch has always treated his media outlets as vehicles for forwarding his commercial interests,” he said.
“He’s currying favour with the new government, and I’m sure there are a lot of media-related regulatory issues in relation to things like gambling where he has his own interest at heart.”
Interestingly, The Times, another Murdoch-owned British newspaper, chose not to endorse any party, saying Labour “has yet to earn the trust of the British people”.
“You can see [Murdoch] is sort of hedging his bets a little there,” Christensen said.
Other newspapers that endorsed Labour included The Independent, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian and The Mirror.
The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and Sunday Express — all right-leaning — backed the Conservatives.
The “elephant in the room”, according to Christensen, is the Nigel Farage-led Reform party, which went unendorsed by traditional media.
“You’re looking at a party here that’s, obviously, not getting any endorsement from any major media outlets — but the fact is they got a disproportionate amount of media [attention], given how low they were polling at the beginning of their period as a party.
“You see a very, very rapid rise of a very small party. I think it’s actually a very interesting case study in how simple media oxygen can give a relatively minor party a huge boost in the run-up to an election.”
