Brooks 'took concerning interest' in MP Watson, court documents claim

Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's UK company, took a "deeply concerning interest" in the phone-hacking campaigner Tom Watson, while one of her journalists wrote that he "must die", according to claims in a newly disclosed court document.

- Daniel Boffey

Brooks allegedly told Will Lewis, the then general manager of News Group Newspapers (NGN) who is now the chief executive and publisher of the Washington Post, on 23 June 2011 to pass on a message that the company would "go for broke if Watson on - and Downing Street need to be warned".

The email referred to rumours that Watson, then a Labour MP and now a peer, would sit on a joint committee of the Commons and Lords looking into the allegations of the hacking of mobile phones that ultimately led to the closure of the News of the World, the Sunday sister title to the Sun.

A further email cited in Watson's claim is one from a senior reporter at the Sun to six colleagues in January 2011, including the then news editor, which is said by the then Labour MP to typify the attitude at the company. It read: "tom Watson must die."

It is claimed by Watson that NGN's journalists "targeted Lord Watson heavily with the aim of dismantling his reputation and life".