Rupert Murdoch dropped into the U.K. on Tuesday to open the London headquarters of his publishing conglomerate News Corp.
The 17-story News Building, as it has been called, is located next to The Shard, a skyscraper that stretches over 1,000 feet high and is currently the tallest building in the European Union. Once filled, the new headquarters will house some 3,400 employees across its News U.K. titles including The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun, alongside Dow Jones and HarperCollins Publishers.
On hand at the opening ceremony was Boris Johnson, the current London mayor who has repeatedly been earmarked as a candidate for U.K. Prime Minister. A recent poll by U.K. newspaper The Observer claimed that Johnson was now the favorite to succeed current Prime Minister David Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron’s close relationship with senior figures within News Corp was the subject of scrutiny in the U.K. phone-hacking scandal last year.
“News U.K. is now at the heart of a growing, international media hub that is proof of the confidence that leading businesses have in our city,” Johnson told the assembled audience. “Nestled next to the giant cosmic spear that is The Shard, I can think of no better place for some of Britain’s most prominent and historic titles to base themselves.”
Murdoch recently waded into the debate over Scottish independence, a matter that will be settled following Thursday’s referendum and could result in Scotland splitting from its 300-year-old union with England. In a move likely to have angered Johnson, whose party has been desperately arguing for Scotland to stay, Murdoch last week tweeted that he thought “Scots better people than to be dependants [sic] of London.”
