Rupert Murdoch Mocks Financial Times as Fawlty Towers on Twitter

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch used Twitter to deny rumours that plans to launch the Sun on Sunday were shelved after the arrests of several senior Sun journalists, amid fears the bad publicity would affect the new paper's sales.

Rumours have been circulating that News International (NI), Murdoch's company, was planning to launch the new Sunday tabloid on 29 April to replace scandal-hit News of the World (NotW), which he closed in July after phone hacking revelations engulfed it.

A Financial Times report cited anonymous NI senior staff claiming Murdoch was temporarily shelving the plans because of the latest round of arrests of his journalists, including three current Sun staff, as part of a Scotland Yard probe into illegal payments to police.

"FT Financial Times or Fawlty Towers? Sun on Sunday story today 100 percent wrong," Murdoch tweeted.

NI is officially saying very little about the new publication but interest in it was reignited by Tom Watson MP on 27 January.

"A News Corp source tells me Rupert Murdoch has seen the draft designs of the Sunday Sun with a launch in April at a discounted price," Watson tweeted.

It's thought some former NotW staff will be a part of Murdoch's new tabloid.