Phone hacking: Tom Watson suggests James Murdoch given advance briefing on MPs ... - Telegraph.co.uk

Mrs Mensch shot back: "Are you accusing me of something? Not like you. Don't let temper get better of you. 'Fit' was error."

In the letter, Mr Murdoch denied he had misled parliament and maintained that his executives at the News of the World should have alerted him to the problem.

Speaking afterwards, Mrs Mensch said she did not believe any MPs on the committee had been briefing the Murdochs on the MPs' deliberations.

She told The Daily Telegraph: "I can't imagine that would happen. I can't think of any person who would leak important details about internal workings."

She said she had only received a briefing once from News Corp lobbyist Fred Michel about arrests at The Sun over the hacking investigation. This meeting as fully declared to the committee the next day, she said.

Mr Watson declined to return phone calls. However he told another newspaper that the best solution to the row would be to publish the draft report, alongside the final version.