Boris "blinded" by ambition showed "appalling judgement" by inviting Murdoch to the olympics

Hunt greeted by Murdoch as he arrives at the aquatics centre

Rupert Murdoch was invited "personally" to the London 2012 games by the London Mayor, Boris Johnson. The invitation was to see the ladies eight hundred metres freestyle, which was won by Katie Ledecky of the United States. Mr Murdoch was greeted by the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, you'd of thought Mr Murdoch would be the last person he would want to see after all the damage that has been done over the handling of the BSkyB bid.

Boris Johnson's decision to invite Mr Murdoch has led to criticism from a number of quarters. Jenny Jones, a green party member of the London assembly who sits on the police and crime committee, said inviting Murdoch was "inappropriate" and showed "appalling judgement". Jones said: "Johnson seems to think he can get away with anything but there is always a step too far and this could be it. Most people will be appalled that he has taken someone who heads up a company that is currently involved in a criminal investigation."

The Deputy Chairman of the Labour party and DCMS committee member Tom Watson MP (Lab West Bromich West) told me that: "He [Boris Johnson] is an ambitious man. I think he's blinded by it". The Independent candidate for London mayor in May, Siobhan Benita, told me "no" she wouldn't of invited Mr Murdoch to the games continuing "my guest list to the Olympics would have been very different I suspect". Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick, who had his phone hacked, said it is an "error of judgement" to of invited Mr Murdoch to the olympics.

Lawrence Webb who was the UKIP candidate for London mayor back in May told me that: "Clearly Boris owes him a favour; I would have invited Corporal Beharry and the family of Corporal Budd as my guests, for as much as I admire the efforts and sacrifices made to become an Olympian they pale into insignificance when compared to the sacrifices made by our armed services, all of which are done without the hope of winning a medal or a lucrative sponsorship deal."

The, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government, Nick Clegg, has in the past attacked the Tories for their decision to ‘bow and scrape’ before Rupert Murdoch. Saying in May this year ‘Almost the entire political class competed to bow and scrape in front of Rupert Murdoch. The whole thing was rotten, and it inevitably came crashing down.

The invite came just weeks after the London mayor was forced to deny there was an attempt to conceal a meeting with Rupert Murdoch that took place as the phone-hacking scandal was gathering momentum in early 2011. Boris Johnson's office said an "administrative error" meant details of the meeting in January last year were not published for 10 months.

The mayor, a former journalist who now writes a regular column in the Daily Telegraph, "dropped into dinner" at Murdoch's London home on 24 January 2011. This was just two days before the police launched a new phone-hacking investigation. The dinner took place just three days after Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor and No 10 director of communications, resigned from the government role, saying the phone-hacking scandal was making it impossible to do his job.

Boris Johnson's spokesman made clear that the tickets for Mr Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng were not funded by the taxpayer, but came from Johnson's allocation of 506 Olympic tickets sponsored by private companies through London & Partners. His spokesman also confirmed that the mayor had offered 2012 Games tickets to thirty nine people "who suffered the most severe and life-changing injuries and to the families of the fiftytwo people who lost their lives" in the terrorist bombings on July 7th 2005.