Why were Murdochs so generous to Rebekah Brooks?

ON THE EVE of James Murdoch's recall by the Commons culture committee to explain discrepancies in his earlier testimony about phone-hacking at the News of the World, it has been revealed that Rebekah Brooks was given an extraordinarily generous payoff when she resigned this summer.

Brooks, a one-time editor of the paper who later became chief executive of News International, resigned in July, days after Rupert Murdoch took the dramatic decision to close the Sunday tabloid.

Far from disappearing into the shadows – or travelling the world, as Rupert Murdoch reportedly advised her to do - it now transpires that Brooks was given £1.7m in cash and the use for two years of a London office and a chauffeur-driven limo.

Labour MP Tom Watson, a leading light on the culture committee, said at the weekend: "It is remarkably curious that such a generous package is given to Ms Brooks when others have been cut loose. It is almost as if she hasn't really left the company.

"I'm sure he [James Murdoch] will want to explain this decision to his shareholders."

As The Independent on Sunday reported, Murdoch is likely to be asked by Watson and his fellow committee members whether Brooks was told, in effect, that she can have her job back within the next two years. ·