Leveson Inquiry: Tony Blair admits discussing Murdoch takeover deal with Italian PM The deal never went through after it emerged the Italians would have been hostile to Mr Murdoch owning the company. Mr Blair today said there was nothing wrong with asking his Italian counterpart about the possibility of a deal and betrayed frustration at the furore about the call at the time. "What was an intervention that I think was perfectly justified and lasted about two minutes ended up occupying days and weeks of time," he said. All I was doing was finding out whether a foreign owner would be welcome or not welcome. I don't think that's, you know, unreasonable for that to be asked as if another media group had been interested in a possible acquisition I would have done the same. In his written evidence, Mr Blair further explained that he was seeking to find out whether there would be "political objection" from the Italians to a deal. "In respect of my raising the possible acquisition by Rupert Murdoch of the part of the Mediaset Group in Italy, I can't recall precisely how this came about," he said. After seeking the Cabinet Secretary's advice as to the propriety of doing it, I raised it in the course of a call with Romano Prodi, the Italian Prime Minister to see if there was going to be a political objection.