AP

LONDON BRITAIN’S former foreign secretary says that ties between the country’s politicians and the media had become uncomfortably close when Tony Blair was in power.

Jack Straw, who served in several senior positions in Blair’s government, said on Wednesday that ties had been “sometimes incestuous.” Straw also described his own relationship with Rebekah Brooks, who used to run Britain’s top-selling The Sun tabloid. Straw said they took the train to London together weekly, trading gossip and talking about the issues of the day. Brooks has since become one of the highest-profile casualties of the scandal over illegal behaviour at The Sun and its sister-title, the now-defunct News of the World.

Straw was testifying before Lord Justice Brian Leveson’s inquiry into media ethics, which is sifting through the scandal’s fallout.