Brooks 'met Osborne for talks'

Former News International boss Ms Brooks admitted to the inquiry that she discussed the takover bid with Mr Osborne and although she couldn't remember who started the conversation, she accepted it might have been her.

Council for the inquiry Robert Jay QC asked whether this was appropriate.

"For one three-minute conversation at the beginning of dinner I got the opportunity to give our view. I don't think that is inappropriate," Ms Brooks said.

She also said she had discussed the deal "in passing" with David Cameron.

"The BSkyB bid was mentioned at the dinner at our home in December, but I don't remember having a particularly forceful discussion with Mr Cameron on it," she said.

"Mr Cameron always made it very clear that he turned it into, or it was a quasi-judicial decision and it wasn't up to him ... He was always very even-handed of it."

The former News International chief also revealed that Mr Cameron had expressed regret that he could not be more loyal publicly following her resignation over the phone-hacking scandal.

The issue of contacts between Ms Brooks and the Chancellor was raised by the release of emails from News Corp lobbyist Frederic Michel by the Leveson Inquiry last month.

One email showed that she had reported Mr Osborne's reaction to an Ofcom announcement on the BSkyB bid: "Same from GO - total bafflement at response."

Mr Osborne has submitted a written statement to the inquiry but was not expected to attend.

Ms Brooks also gave details of dozens of lunches and dinners with successive prime ministers.

She claimed to have met or dined with Tony Blair at least 30 times between 1998 and 2007, and a number of times with Gordon Brown.

She said she and Mr Cameron met at least once for lunch and four times for dinner following the 2010 general election, including at a Christmas dinner party at the Brooks's Oxfordshire home on December 23 that year.