Recounting one of the longest running spats between a newspaper proprietor and an editor, Harold Evans, the legendary former editor of The Sunday Times, deposed before the Leveson Inquiry late Thursday, and described how he and Rupert Murdoch “almost came to fisticuffs” when Murdoch disagreed with a story published in The Times by an anti-monetarist writer.

Evans remained with The Times for a year after its takover by Murdoch and resigned over differences over editorial independence with Murdoch, who he Thursday called the “evil incarnate”.

According to Evans, Murdoch did not uphold the pledges about editorial independence made to parliament before taking over The Times newspapers in 1981, and regretted that parliament never intervened. PTI