Leveson inquiry:Jack Straw gossiped with Rebekah Brooks on the train

He also admitted that Tony Blair’s government had been too close to the press, and suggested Rupert Murdoch used his newspapers’ power to further his commercial interests.

The comments came as Mr Straw – who served as justice, home and foreign secretary under Labour – gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry.

“During my period as justice secretary, I would often travel to London on a Monday morning from the West Oxfordshire station of Charlbury,” he said in his statement.

“Mrs Rebekah Brooks used to use the same train.

“After a while, we made arrangements to meet up and sit together for the journey.”

Mr Straw told the inquiry: “We would talk about what was in the papers. We’d gossip about personalities, and that sort of thing. We weren’t nattering the whole journey.” He stressed the conversations were not too sensitive, because there were always people “earwigging”.

The meetings petered out after about two years when Mrs Brooks – who was yesterday charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to the phone-hacking scandal – became chief executive of News International in 2009.

The disclosure offers yet more evidence of Mrs Brooks’ extensive contacts with major political players. Last week she told the inquiry that David Cameron regularly signed off text messages with “LOL” for “lots of love”.

Mr Straw said Labour’s links with journalists had become “very, very close, sometimes incestuous” in opposition, and that continued after 1997.

Asked about Mr Murdoch’s impact on politicians, Mr Straw insisted the owner of the Sun and the Times had “power”.

“He reckoned his political influence would be greater if, as it were, his support was available in return for what he thought he could get out of it,” he said. “I don’t mean a deal, because I have seen no evidence of a deal. But he thought there was something in it.”

He went on: “The perception I got is that Mr Murdoch is enjoying the fact that he has been willing to play with political leaders in the way the senior executives of the other papers have not.”

Pressed on what the media mogul thought he would get from influence over politicians, Mr Straw suggested he wanted to “consolidate his non-newspaper interests in this country”.

Mr Murdoch believed remaining available could “open more doors in government when it came to things like media regulation, licences, regulation of football and so on”.

Asked whether Mr Murdoch wielded “power” or “influence”, Mr Straw replied: “Certainly to those on the receiving end it felt like power.”