The Chancellor, George Osborne, flew to New York and had dinner with Rupert Murdoch two weeks before the media regulator was due to decide on whether to approve his takeover of BSkyB.

The timing of the meeting will raise further questions about the close ties between senior members of the Coalition and Mr Murdoch’s media empire.
The disclosure comes as the Cabinet Office prepares to publish for the first time details of all meetings between government ministers and media executives and proprietors for the first three months of this year.
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that Mr Osborne flew to New York on a five-day visit on Dec 16 last year, to meet Mike Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, and a group of bankers.
The day after arriving, the Chancellor met Mr Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp, for a “social” dinner with a small gathering of people. The Treasury refused to discuss who attended, but insisted that BSkyB was not discussed.
At the time Ofcom, the media regulator, had until Dec 31 to decide whether to refer News Corp’s bid for the remaining 61 per cent shares in BSkyB to the Competition Commission.

On the day of Mr Osborne’s return to Britain, Dec 21, David Cameron removed decision-making powers over the BSkyB bid from Vince Cable after the Business Secretary made unguarded comments that he had “gone to war” with Mr Murdoch.
Two days later, on Dec 23, the Prime Minister held a private Christmas dinner with Mr Murdoch’s son James and Rebekah Brooks, who was then chief executive of News International, together with their wives and husband.
News of Mr Osborne’s meeting was especially sensitive after it was claimed in Parliament that Mr Osborne persuaded Mr Cameron to hire Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, as his communications chief.
Last night, John Mann, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, wrote to Mr Osborne with a list of questions about the visit.
He writes: “Given the clear public interest in News International at the moment, please disclose on what day(s) and at what time(s) you met Rupert Murdoch and/or any other executives from News Corp or News International, and/or its subsidiaries.” Mr Mann also asks Mr Osborne who else attended the meetings and what matters were discussed, including “Andy Coulson and the BSkyB deal”.
Treasury sources insisted that during the visit Mr Osborne met Mr Bloomberg, as well as executives from Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase.
He also attended a Newsweek business breakfast and had interviews with the American news channel CNN, the cable channel MSNBC and BBC2’s Newsnight programme.
Mr Osborne’s family joined him for part of the visit. The City of New York paid £5,400 for his transport.
The Treasury is planning to publish details of the Murdoch meeting and all of Mr Osborne’s meetings with media executives going back to May last year.
A Treasury spokesman said: “This information has been submitted to the Cabinet Office for publication.”