Media mogul: Rupert Murdoch sat in on Michael Gove Times interview with Donald Trump

President Donald Trump's first interview with a British journalist – Conservative MP Michael Gove – was undeniably a huge scoop for for The Times (of London).

Photos of the pair sat at the top of Manhattan's Trump Tower made a story in itself – never mind Trump's remarks that Nato was obsolete, Brexit "a great thing" and Angela Merkel's refugee policy a "catastrophic mistake".

Now it has been revealed that the meeting was also attended by Rupert Murdoch – though (perhaps unsurprisingly) the media mogul never made it into the official photographs.

The disclosure was made by the Financial Times – who claim to have verified the story from two separate sources.

Murdoch's News Corp own Fox News, a network increasingly supportive of Trump. It is claimed that Murdoch personally oversaw the appointment of Tucker Carlson – a recent addition to the prime time team and a fervent Trump supporter.

The Financial Times also reported that Trump's daughter Ivanka was at one time a trustee of Murdoch's daughters Grace and Chloe. She is reported to have stepped down from the position in December 2016.

News Corp also own the Times, a newspaper that pays Gove a salary of £150,000 a year to write for them outside of his obligations as a member of parliament. When Gove challenged for the Conservative leadership in aftermath of the Brexit vote, Murdoch said: "He could run a fine government."

Gove's leadership bid collapsed and he was then been banished to the back benches by new prime minister Theresa May. He returned to The Times, where he had worked before entering politics, towards the end of 2016.

Murdoch's relationships with British politicians was put under the spotlight during the Leveson Inquiry in 2012. Murdoch was forced to deny ever saying: "When I go to Downing Street, they do what I say; when I go to Brussels, they take no notice."

The quote was attributed to him by Anthony Hilton of the Evening Standard and has been closely associated with the octogenarian ever since.