IT should be the mother of all parliamentary committees.

Given public sentiment, they will probably have to arrive and leave Westminster under blankets with a police escort.

A statement from News Corp said they would “co-operate” with the Commons Culture Committee, which extended the invitation. But John Whittingdale, its chairman, said there was some confusion as to whether this meant they would turn up or they would not.

Today, Conservative high command will join forces with Labour and the Liberal Democrats in a Commons debate to tell the News Corp chief in no uncertain terms to drop his bid to control BSkyB.

Feelings are understandably running high with the Dowler family this week meeting political leaders -- they’re due to talk to David Cameron this afternoon -- and Gordon Brown unusually breaking cover to pile more opprobrium on News Corp.

The key element of the former PM’s intervention is that it widens the attack on Mr Murdoch’s empire. The claim now is that the despicable practices of News International, the UK arm of News Corp, were not confined to the News of the World but were also employed by The Sun and the Sunday Times.

Indeed, in an excoriating attack, Mr Brown accused Mr Murdoch’s company of being in cahoots with the “criminal underworld” over a story that claimed he had bought a London flat in an “underhand way”. The ex-PM said the allegations were totally untrue and were a bid to end his government career. The newspaper had abused its power, he insisted, for “political gain”.

He insisted he refused to go along with News Corp’s commercial ambitions and, in the end, paid a price when The Sun, in the most vindictive way possible -- on the eve of the then Labour leader’s keynote speech to conference -- declared for David Cameron and the Tories.

Some might think this is Gordon’s revenge, served up at a suitably sub-zero temperature.

In his devastating BBC interview, Mr Brown spoke most emotionally about how the medical records of his son Fraser, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, were used as the basis for a story in The Sun. The Scot admitted to being “in tears” when Ms Brooks, editor at the time, told him they were going to run the article.

Last night, The Sun denied accessing the medical records of Mr Brown’s son, insisting the information came from a member of the public.

The paper insisted it wrote the article “sensitively and appropriately” and said neither Mr Brown nor his colleagues complained at the time.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Times claimed it had pursued the story about the then Chancellor’s London flat “in the public interest”, insisting no criminal was used and no law broken.

Yet in the court of public opinion, News International’s denials will fall on deaf ears. Britons have made their mind up.

The last time there was such anticipation about a parliamentary committee was when Sir Fred Goodwin appeared with his fellow bankers before the Treasury Committee following the banking crisis when sorry seemed to be the easiest word.

Given the nation’s continuing horror and fury over the phone hacking scandal, should Team Murdoch turn up for their parliamentary grilling, the event will make Fred the Shred’s appearance seem like a teddy bears’ picnic.