JOHN MAJOR’S Tory government worried about how to handle Rupert Murdoch’s growing media empire, newly released government papers reveal.

Downing Street began to compile a confidential briefing on the “financial performance, market share, [and] plans for expansion” of News Corporation, ahead of the PM meeting the media tycoon in August 1993.

The meeting came after a torrent of bad publicity in the Murdoch press, with one Sun leader saying Mr Major was “a nice guy but not up to [the] job.”