Insiders at the Sun said they were well prepared for Peter Mandelson's angry condemnation of the paper on the BBC and his decision to draw attention to the extent of its collusion with the Tories. More than one cabinet minister called executives at News International, the Sun's publisher, on Tuesday evening to warn the government was about to go on the offensive in response to the paper's personal attacks on Gordon Brown over his correspondence with Jacqui Janes.
The paper had decided to abandon support for Brown and endorse the Tories in a stage-managed move on the day of his speech to the Labour party conference, but the level of collusion between the paper and Andy Coulson, David Cameron's highly paid director of communications, is disputed.
The Sun's new editor, Dominic Mohan, is close friends with Coulson. Both are former showbiz journalists who edited the paper's Bizarre column. Rebekah Brooks, whom Mohan replaced as editor, is now chief executive of News International, running Rupert Murdoch's stable of British papers, which also includes the Times, which has yet to endorse the Conservatives.
Brooks's relationship with Cameron has developed over years, in informal surroundings miles from the Westminster village, according to sources close to the paper. "It's well known that Rebekah sees Cameron at weekends and has done for years," said one. The former Sun editor travels back to the Oxfordshire home she shares with her new husband, Charlie Brooks, at the end of each week. Cameron is a regular guest at their dinner table.
One of Wade's favourite journalists, the defence correspondent, Tom Newton Dunn, recently took up the post of political editor at the Sun.
Senior sources at News International play down talk of contracts or agreements with Cameron over specific policy proposals but concede there is common ground on many issues, including the BBC.
Senior BBC executives say they fear the Tories could slice 20% from the licence fee, and director-general Mark Thompson is conducting a big review into services at the corporation, telling staff it can no longer do everything but is faced with "either, or" decisions about what it can offer viewers and listeners.
It is expected to complete it by February next year, well before a general election. The expectation at the highest levels of the BBC is that if it does not make some tough choices, now the Conservatives will do it for them.
There is clear evidence of the tabloid giving the Conservatives an easy ride, even on issues the Sun would consider articles of faith. When David Cameron finally abandoned his "cast iron" pledge for a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, the paper chose to round on Brown, using its front page to attack the prime minister for signing it in the first place.
According to one source close to the paper, the quid pro quo for such support is simple: the paper will demand the same "Rolls Royce" service from the Conservatives provided by Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair in the years immediately following Murdoch's warm embrace of New Labour. That will include a string of scoops and unparalleled access to senior ministers, up to and including Cameron himself.
However, while there is an overt anti-government campaign at the paper, within the Sun suggestions are dismissed that there is a high level of planning about future anti-Brown coverage.
Even so, it is believed that the prime minister has complained to Rupert Murdoch about his treatment. "I think you can assume this has been taken up at a Brown-Murdoch level," said one political source.
Same hymn sheet?
Policy The BBC
What James Murdoch said at his MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh
The BBC should be "far, far smaller". He criticised the corporation for trying to be all things to all people, Radio 1 and the acquisition of Lonely Planet by BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm.
Tory policy post-MacTaggart
Senior BBC managers should have their pay capped at less than £200,000, according to shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt. BBC Worldwide would be limited to promoting its products and parts of it could be sold off.
Policy Ofcom
Murdoch
Complained about the volume of regulations imposed by Ofcom and said it was an anachronism that broadcasters were more heavily controlled than newspapers in an "all-media age".
Tories
David Cameron said that the media regulator will be stripped of its policy-making functions, which will be returned to the government, as part of his "bonfire of the quangos".
Policy Piracy
Murdoch
Has used his MacTaggart lecture to state unequivocally that piracy is theft.
Tories
Take a tough line on piracy and have backed government plans to cut off consumers who illegally download.
Policy Impartiality and the internet
Murdoch
Said it was threat to provision of "independent news" that the BBC was able to provide online news for free.
Tories
Reluctant to argue the BBC can't make available the same content it provides on other platforms, including TV and radio, to licence fee payers online.
