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Lord Mandelson attends 80% of committees

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments

Peter Mandelson’s influence in government was underscored today with the release of a breakdown of government committees which shows that he attended 80% of them.

Mandelson, the first secretary of state, attends 35 of the 43 committees and subcommittees, in contrast to the 23 attended by foreign secretary David Miliband.

Mandelson’s total is also in contrast to the 27 attended by chancellor Alistair Darling and sees the business secretary asked to cast an eye over policies as varied as immigration, climate change, “life chances”; Africa; food and energy and children.

The official deputy prime minister to Tony Blair, John Prescott, sat on just 17 committees.

Mandelson’s reach was revealed during a rush of announcements as parliament rose for its summer recess. This summer recess is longer than last year’s at 82 days.

In contrast to previous years when the prime minister has only managed a few days’ break, Downing Street said Gordon Brown would be going on a longer holiday than usual, taking all of August off.

Under a deadline effectively imposed by the recess, MPs passed emergency legislation tonight which would see the emergency creation of a new watchdog to regulate their expenses.

In legislation rushed through within a month, MPs finally voted to create the new body, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, after the government was forced to make a number of concessions during its passage through parliament, including suffering one defeat when MPs rejected attempts by the government to end the historic right of parliamentary privilege.

Speaking about the attempt to get the measures through parliament, the minister responsible for the legislation, justice secretary Jack Straw, described it as “the most difficult piece of legislation” he has ever dealt with.

Though the expenses legislation began life enjoying cross-party consensus, Tory and Lib Dem support crumbled when the opposition parties believed the government was trying to shoehorn into the legislation additional measures they thought were superfluous to the clean-up of MPs’ expenses. MPs expressed dismay today about the lack of time to scrutinise the legislation, with the Tory grandee Sir Patrick Cormack complaining that MPs only had an hour to vote on a bill he argued had been “completely rewritten”.

MPs were debating the parliamentary standards bill after it had returned to the commons chamber from the Lords where they had removed from the legislation parts that would have made it an offence should a parliamentarian fail to comply with the register of financial interests that will be maintained by IPSA.

Though the government had tried to create three criminal offences, the final legislation sees only one. It is now a criminal offence for an MP to make a false expense claim with that MP punished by up to 12 months if found guilty.

In an attempt to allay backbench fears of rushed legislation, ministers said there would be the opportunity in the next two years through a “sunset clause” to review the IPSA in formal post-legislative scrutiny.

Another body, the members estimate committee, also announced it would be placing more stringent demands on MPs, requiring them to publish a greater amount of detail on the amount they claimed in second home allowances over the last year.

Commons authorities are expected to publish their details of MPs’ expense claims in the autumn. Though the home addresses will be blacked out, the MEC now wants MPs to state directly whether they have switched the address they have designated as their second homes.

The latest, more onerous move, has been spearheaded by the new speaker, John Bercow, who chairs the members estimate committee.

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Murdoch ‘knew of hacking payout’

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments

• News International chief agreed with £700,000 settlement
• Andy Coulson admits ‘things went badly wrong’ at NoW
• Coulson also says he has evidence his own phone was hacked

James Murdoch, the News International executive chairman, was aware of Gordon Taylor’s breach of privacy claim and agreed with the decision to settle for £700,000 after a private investigator working for the News of the World hacked into the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive’s phone, MPs were told today.

The News International head of legal, Tom Crone, and the News of the World editor, Colin Myler, took the settlement figure to Murdoch for his approval, MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee hearing into privacy, press standards and libel heard.

Myler told the committee that Crone – who was also giving evidence to MPs today – advised him after taking legal advice that News International should settle the case brought by Taylor, whose phone messages were hacked into by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

Mulcaire was sent to prison for six months in January 2007 for hacking into the messages of Taylor and other public figures, including Elle Macpherson, and members of the royal household.

Murdoch, also the chairman and chief executive of News International parent company News Corporation’s businesses in Europe and Asia, was told about the Taylor claim, and Crone continued negotiations with the PFA boss until a settlement was agreed last year, Myler told the committee.

“James Murdoch was apprised of the situation and agreed with our recommendation to settle,” Myler said. “It was an agreed collective decision.”

The Labour MP Tom Watson, a member of the select committee, asked Myler and Crone when they told the News Corporation chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, about the payment, but his question was unanswered.

Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, also appeared before the committee today and admitted to MPs that “things went badly wrong” during his editorship at the tabloid, which ended in his resignation over the jailing of the paper’s royal editor for illegal phone hacking.

Coulson said he did not condone phone hacking and had “no recollection” of it taking place while he was News of the World editor. He also that rejected MPs’ suggestions that the paper had a systemic culture of phone hacking.

The former editor, now the Conservative party’s director of communications, announced his resignation from the paper in January 2007 when royal reporter Clive Goodman went to jail for four months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to intercept communications, which involved hacking into the phone messages of members of the royal household. Goodman was jailed at the same time as Mulcaire.

Coulson told the MPs that “mistakes were made” during his four years as editor. “Things went badly wrong under my editorship of the News of the World, I deeply regret it,” he added.

“When I resigned I gave up a 20-year career with News International and everything that I had worked towards since I was 18. I have to accept that mistakes were made and I have to accept that the system could have been better,” Coulson added.

But he said that Goodman’s extra cash payments to Mulcaire were unknown to him. “Goodman deceived the managing editor’s office and deceived me,” Coulson told MPs.

He added that his initial reaction when he learned of the payments was one of surprise and anger.

Coulson said he was not aware that any other journalists from the paper were involved in phone hacking with Mulcaire while he was editor.

“As far as I am aware there is no evidence linking the non-royal phone hacking by Glenn Mulcaire with any member of the News of the World staff,” Coulson added.

However, Coulson also said he had evidence that his own phone was hacked by Mulcaire. He added that that he had recently been contacted by a Scotland Yard detective.

“There strong evidence to suggest that my phone was hacked,” Coulson said. “There is more evidence to suggest that my phone was hacked than John Prescott.”

Coulson’s revelation comes two years after MediaGuardian.co.uk revealed that Rebekah Wade, then Sun editor and News International chief executive designate, had her own phone hacked into by Mulcaire.

He was also asked about the settlement with Taylor. “I never asked for a Gordon Taylor story, I never commissioned an Gordon Taylor story, I never read a Gordon Taylor story, I never published a Gordon Taylor story,” he replied. “With all respect to Gordon Taylor, he is hardly a household name.”

Coulson said he would regularly spend a five-figure sum on a picture or a story so that Mulcaire’s £100,000-a-year contract “did not stand out”. “The idea that I would micromanage the budget, it just wasn’t the case,” he added.

He told MPs that News of the World staff were expected to obey the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct.

“My instructions to the staff were clear – we did not use subterfuge of any kind unless there was a clear public interest in doing so. They were to work within the PCC code at all times,” Coulson said.

He later said that he did not think that phone hacking was in the public interest.

Coulson added that he did give senior reporters free rein and that as the News of the World published more than 100 stories a week he was not involved in all of them but focused on the first 15 pages of the paper, as well as the main sport pages, the features spread and the comment section.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

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CPS not given key evidence in hacking case

July 20th, 2009 | No Comments

Pressure on Scotland Yard as prosecutors say detectives did not give them a key email in News of the World phone-hacking case

Scotland Yard will come under fresh pressure today to reopen its inquiry into phone-hacking and the News of the World after prosecutors said they were never handed a document that appeared to implicate another of the paper’s senior staff.

The Crown Prosecution Service told the Guardian that detectives did not give them a key email naming the tabloid’s chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck.

In the email, a junior News of the World reporter has copied a transcript of more than 30 messages hacked from the phones of the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive, Gordon Taylor, and his legal adviser Jo Armstrong.

The email recorded that the transcript had been prepared “for Neville”.

The News of the World has consistently claimed that the hacking of voicemail by a private investigator involved only one rogue journalist, their royal reporter Clive Goodman, acting alone.

The CPS confirmed that the email was not “physically” provided to them as evidence to support the prosecution of Goodman and private investigator Glen Mulcaire.

Instead it formed part of a bundle of documentary evidence that was retained by the police. Prosecuting counsel would have seen it, but as it had no specific relevacne to the case, the wider significance of it would not have been obvious.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, last week carried out an internal review of the 2007 files and decided not to reopen them, saying that the case had been properly dealt with at the time based on the evidence provided to them by the police.

In a new statement, the CPS said: “The email was not in the possession of the CPS and so did not form part of the examination that the DPP carried out earlier this week.”

The statement added: “The DPP is now considering whether any further action is necessary.”

This development follows previous disclosures that:

• Police never interviewed Thurlbeck or other journalists named, according to the paper.

• Police failed to warn everyone who may have been hacked and are now still in the process of informing people who were potential targets.

• Police did not investigate the possibility the tabloid’s private eye succeeded in hacking the phones of many other targeted public figures, including the former deputy prime minister John Prescott.

The previously unknown email was one of the documents obtained by the Guardian and was provided to the House of Commons media select committee. The committee is due tomorrow to question the News of the World’s then editor, Andy Coulson, on his claims of ignorance.

The Guardian also handed over a contract in which the News of the World’s then assistant editor for news, Greg Miskiw, agreed to pay a bonus of £7,000 for information about Taylor. The CPS says that, unlike the email, that contract was passed to prosecutors by police, and was available to them as part of the evidence.

At the time of the investigation, Miskiw was no longer working for the News of the World, having left in 2005.

The documents only came to light because victims took legal actions in which police were required to hand over “unused material” they had obtained in a raid on the private detective concerned, which garnered a mass of paperwork.

The Guardian two weeks ago disclosed that the News of the World then paid more than £1m to secretly settle the legal actions by Taylor and two other figures from the football world.

Their lawyers had uncovered the evidence that other journalists had been involved.

Scotland Yard’s original inquiry began in December 2005 after members of the royal household suspected their voicemails were being intercepted.

In January 2007, the News of the World’s royal reporter, Clive Goodman, and Mulcaire, were jailed as a result. But their guilty pleas avoided a full trial at which more evidence may have come out.

More evidence may now be disclosed in legal actions being brought by other hacking victims, including the celebrity publicist Max Clifford, who has hired Taylor’s legal team.

News International said in an earlier statement that, apart from Goodman, “the police have not considered it necessary to arrest or question any other member of the News of the World staff”.

After saying last week that “where there was clear evidence that people had been the subject of tapping, they were all contacted by the police”, Scotland Yard 24 hours later announced that they were now also contacting people where there was a suspicion that they had been hacked

Statements from the DPP and Scotland Yard indicate that to avoid the case becoming unmanageable, they investigated at the time only a small sample of half a dozen, choosing those where evidence was strong, corroboration was available and the victims were willing to testify.

Tomorrow the spotlight moves to News International figures due to give evidence to the media select committee. As well as Coulson, listed witnesses include the paper’s former managing editor Stuart Kuttner and its current editor, Colin Myler.

The committee reopened its inquiry after noting “some contradiction” between disclosures in the Guardian and evidence given two years ago by News International’s then chairman, Les Hinton.

So far, the News of the World has remained silent following publication of the Thurlbeck and Miskiw documents.

The Metropolitan police said in a statement that the CPS trial barristers would have seen the Thurlbeck email at the time, because it had been in the police’s own files of “unused material”.

Scotland Yard did not explain why detectives had not followed it up, or turned it over to the DPP in their original submission of evidence.

The CPS said that “as in every case”, “The unused material was seen by prosecution counsel to determine whether or not it was capable of assisting the defence case.”

The Thurlbeck email would have been irrelevant to the Goodman and Mulcaire defence.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

• If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”.

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Andy Coulson faces phone-hacking inquiry

July 16th, 2009 | No Comments

Commons media committee to quiz David Cameron’s communications chief about his role in intercept affair

Andy Coulson, the Conservative party’s communications chief, will next week be questioned by MPs about phone-hacking by News of the World journalists during his time as editor of the paper.

The Commons media committee will ask Coulson about reports in the Guardian showing that phone-hacking was much more widespread than News of the World admitted after its royal reporter, Clive Goodman, was jailed for illegally intercepting royal telephone messages.

Coulson – who resigned as the paper’s editor after Goodman was convicted – has said he did not know what his employee was doing.

But he has never been questioned in public about the affair, and at the hearing next Tuesday he is expected to come under pressure from MPs who find it hard to believe that News of the World executives did not know how Goodman was getting his information.

Coulson was the editor of the paper for three and a half years until resigning in January 2007.

In July that year, he became the Tory communications chief and is now viewed as a key member of David Cameron’s inner circle.

Last week, following the latest Guardian revelations about the News of the World, several Labour MPs, including the former deputy prime minister John Prescott, said Cameron should sack Coulson because of his background.

But the Tory leader insisted Coulson had already paid a price for mistakes that happened at the paper while he was in charge, and that his job was safe.

Coulson will be giving evidence with some of his former colleagues from News International.

The full list of witnesses has not yet been finalised, but could include Stuart Kuttner, the News of the World’s outgoing managing editor, Rebekah Wade, the former Sun editor who will become the News International chief executive by the end of the year, and Colin Myler, the current News of the World editor.

After Goodman was jailed, the News of the World said his behaviour was a one-off and that other staff at the paper did not know he was involved in phone-hacking.

Les Hinton, the executive chairman of News International at the time, told the culture committee then he “believed absolutely” that Coulson did not know what was going on.

Hinton also told the committee the paper had carried out a rigorous inquiry and that he believed Goodman was the only person on the paper who knew about the phone-hacking.

But last Thursday, the Guardian revealed the paper had paid more than £1m to Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers Assocation, and two others who complained about having their phones hacked.

At a culture committee hearing on Monday, the Guardian produced further evidence that the News of the World had been involved in illegal activity, including an email from 2005 showing that other reporters on the paper were involved in handling material obtained by phone-hacking.

Last week, after the Guardian broke the story about the Taylor payment, Coulson issued a statement saying: “This story relates to an alleged payment made after I left the News of the World two and a half years ago.

I have no knowledge whatsoever of any settlement with Gordon Taylor. The [Goodman] case was investigated thoroughly by the police and by the Press Complaints Commission.

“I took full responsibility at the time for what happened on my watch, but without my knowledge, and resigned.”

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New claims of tabloid phone hacking

July 12th, 2009 | No Comments

• Top BBC executive was affected, says newspaper
• Police have begun to contact alleged victims

A top BBC executive and the former Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair were targeted by the News of the World’s phone hacking operation, it was claimed today.

Blair was named in a report in the Sunday Times, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, which also owns the News of the World. However, tonight police sources denied his name was on the list.

The names emerged as the Met said it had begun to contact people who allegedly had been the subjects of hacking by the tabloid newspaper, but warned that the process could take some time to complete. “We are not discussing who we are contacting at all,” a spokeswoman said.

BBC sources said that the corporation did not know which of its executives had been affected by the scam at the paper, which led to Clive Goodman, then News of the World royal correspondent, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, going to jail in 2007.

Andy Coulson, former editor of the tabloid and now director of communications for the Conservative party, subsequently resigned from the paper saying he did not know about the hacking.

Late on Friday the police confirmed they had started to contact people after the Guardian revealed last week that News International had paid £1m to settle privacy actions brought by Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, and two others who took action after Mulcaire hacked into their mobile phone messages.

“The process of contacting people is under way and we expect this to take some time to complete,” the police said.

The Met today refused to divulge how many people it was contacting.

The Sunday Times reported that the police investigation into Goodman and Mulcaire uncovered a list of “fewer than 20 people”; it included Boris Johnson, now the London mayor, and a senior executive at the BBC, whose phones were illegally accessed.

This list includes those named in the 2006 court action against Goodman and Mulcaire – besides Taylor, the model Elle Macpherson, the Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, the publicist Max Clifford, and football agent Sky Andrew.

Macpherson’s publicist said in a statement: “Elle is obviously very concerned that her private telephone conversations and those of other people may have been intruded upon by reputable newspapers. She is aware that the director of public prosecutions (DPP) and the information commissioner have files on the issue. “Miss Macpherson is confident in the ability and the determination of the DPP, the police and information commissioner to ensure that appropriate and proportionate action is taken to prevent any further abuse.”

The DPP is reviewing police evidence and could recommend further charges.

A second, larger, list of about 50 people, contained the names Mulcaire had obtained mobile phone details for, but which police had no evidence had been successfully hacked. The Sunday Times reported that Blair and the former culture minister Tessa Jowell were on this list.

The third list, according to the Sunday Times, reportedly included the former deputy prime minister John Prescott and held between 400 and 500 names that Mulcaire wanted to target but for which he had no numbers.

This week the culture, media and sport committee, which has reopened its 2007 phone hacking inquiry in the light of the Guardian’s revelations, will hear evidence from the Guardian.

The following week, the News International lawyer Tom Crone, and News of the World editor Colin Myler (appointed after Coulson’s resignation), will go before the MPs. The committee hopes to hear evidence from the former executive chairman of News International Les Hinton, who at the original inquiry said Goodman had been acting alone without the knowledge of News of the World executives. Hinton has yet to confirm his attendance.

Public figures and celebrities who fear they were the subjects of the phone hacking have been contacting lawyers. The Bethnal Green and Bow MP George Galloway said he was seeing if any action could be taken. The politician had clashed with the paper in 2006 when its investigations editor, Mahzer Mahmood, attempted to “sting” him at a hotel and implicate him in illegal political funding.

Rod Christie-Miller, partner at the specialist media law firm Schillings, said: “Clients are going to want to see what comes out. Sooner or later there is going to be more concrete evidence about who has been targeted.”

Christie-Miller said his firm was already suspicious that phone hacking could have been used against high-profile clients before the story broke.

“It is something we were concerned may have been happening,” he added. “We have advised clients to change settings on phones and turn off bluetooth.”

One lawyer told mediaguardian.co.uk he had advised clients to “hold their horses” to see what details emerged over the coming days but added that legal claims were “imminent”.

The report in the Sunday Times, sister paper of the News of the World, shed further light on the Gordon Taylor case.

The paper stated: “Taylor’s claim was settled when new evidence emerged out of the police files that another News of the World reporter knew how Mulcaire was obtaining some of his information,

“That reporter has since left the paper and there is no evidence he committed any offence. News International executives are not aware of any other evidence in the police files that show any other News of the World journalist was involved in commissioning Mulcaire to hack phones.”

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New claims of tabloid phone hacking

July 12th, 2009 | No Comments

• Top BBC executive was affected, says newspaper
• Police have begun to contact alleged victims

A top BBC executive and the former Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Ian Blair were targeted by the News of the World’s phone hacking operation, it was claimed today.

Blair was named in a report in the Sunday Times, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, which also owns the News of the World. However, tonight police sources denied his name was on the list.

The names emerged as the Met said it had begun to contact people who allegedly had been the subjects of hacking by the tabloid newspaper, but warned that the process could take some time to complete. “We are not discussing who we are contacting at all,” a spokeswoman said.

BBC sources said that the corporation did not know which of its executives had been affected by the scam at the paper, which led to Clive Goodman, then News of the World royal correspondent, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, going to jail in 2007.

Andy Coulson, former editor of the tabloid and now director of communications for the Conservative party, subsequently resigned from the paper saying he did not know about the hacking.

Late on Friday the police confirmed they had started to contact people after the Guardian revealed last week that News International had paid £1m to settle privacy actions brought by Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, and two others who took action after Mulcaire hacked into their mobile phone messages.

“The process of contacting people is under way and we expect this to take some time to complete,” the police said.

The Met today refused to divulge how many people it was contacting.

The Sunday Times reported that the police investigation into Goodman and Mulcaire uncovered a list of “fewer than 20 people”; it included Boris Johnson, now the London mayor, and a senior executive at the BBC, whose phones were illegally accessed.

This list includes those named in the 2006 court action against Goodman and Mulcaire – besides Taylor, the model Elle Macpherson, the Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, the publicist Max Clifford, and football agent Sky Andrew.

Macpherson’s publicist said in a statement: “Elle is obviously very concerned that her private telephone conversations and those of other people may have been intruded upon by reputable newspapers. She is aware that the director of public prosecutions (DPP) and the information commissioner have files on the issue. “Miss Macpherson is confident in the ability and the determination of the DPP, the police and information commissioner to ensure that appropriate and proportionate action is taken to prevent any further abuse.”

The DPP is reviewing police evidence and could recommend further charges.

A second, larger, list of about 50 people, contained the names Mulcaire had obtained mobile phone details for, but which police had no evidence had been successfully hacked. The Sunday Times reported that Blair and the former culture minister Tessa Jowell were on this list.

The third list, according to the Sunday Times, reportedly included the former deputy prime minister John Prescott and held between 400 and 500 names that Mulcaire wanted to target but for which he had no numbers.

This week the culture, media and sport committee, which has reopened its 2007 phone hacking inquiry in the light of the Guardian’s revelations, will hear evidence from the Guardian.

The following week, the News International lawyer Tom Crone, and News of the World editor Colin Myler (appointed after Coulson’s resignation), will go before the MPs. The committee hopes to hear evidence from the former executive chairman of News International Les Hinton, who at the original inquiry said Goodman had been acting alone without the knowledge of News of the World executives. Hinton has yet to confirm his attendance.

Public figures and celebrities who fear they were the subjects of the phone hacking have been contacting lawyers. The Bethnal Green and Bow MP George Galloway said he was seeing if any action could be taken. The politician had clashed with the paper in 2006 when its investigations editor, Mahzer Mahmood, attempted to “sting” him at a hotel and implicate him in illegal political funding.

Rod Christie-Miller, partner at the specialist media law firm Schillings, said: “Clients are going to want to see what comes out. Sooner or later there is going to be more concrete evidence about who has been targeted.”

Christie-Miller said his firm was already suspicious that phone hacking could have been used against high-profile clients before the story broke.

“It is something we were concerned may have been happening,” he added. “We have advised clients to change settings on phones and turn off bluetooth.”

One lawyer told mediaguardian.co.uk he had advised clients to “hold their horses” to see what details emerged over the coming days but added that legal claims were “imminent”.

The report in the Sunday Times, sister paper of the News of the World, shed further light on the Gordon Taylor case.

The paper stated: “Taylor’s claim was settled when new evidence emerged out of the police files that another News of the World reporter knew how Mulcaire was obtaining some of his information,

“That reporter has since left the paper and there is no evidence he committed any offence. News International executives are not aware of any other evidence in the police files that show any other News of the World journalist was involved in commissioning Mulcaire to hack phones.”

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Wade: we’ll refute phone-hack claims

July 10th, 2009 | No Comments

• Guardian ‘substantially misled’ public, claims incoming NI chief executive in letter to Commons committee chairman
• Lib Dems refer Metropolitan police phone-hacking inquiry to Independent Police Complaints Commission

Rebekah Wade, the Sun editor and soon-to-be News International chief executive, said today that company executives would refute allegations of phone hacking being a widespread practice at the News of the World when they appear before a Commons inquiry.

Wade, who takes over on 1 September as chief executive of News International, publisher of the News of the World and the UK newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, said the company would welcome the chance to appear before MPs on the Commons culture, media and sport select committee to answer questions on the Guardian’s allegations.

She said News International believed the Guardian “has substantially and likely deliberately misled the British public”.

Wade also accused the Guardian, BBC, Channel 4, ITN and Sky News of “either deliberately or recklessly” combining references to the Information Commissioner’s report about the use of private investigators by newspaper publishers, including Guardian Media Group, which also publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk, with “specific and very limited evidence” from the police investigation of illegal phone interceptions by Glen Mulcaire and former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman.

She has written to the chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport committee, John Whittingdale, saying that the company would “refute allegations that illegal phone tapping was a widespread practice”. The News of the World editor, Colin Myler, and Tom Crone, NI’s legal counsel, will appear before the select committee at 10.30am on Tuesday 21 July.

Culture select committee representatives are understood to be locked in negotiations with former News International executive chairman Les Hinton in a bid to ensure he appears before an earlier emergency session about the News of the World phone hacking affair on Tuesday 14 July.

In her letter, Wade said: “It [the Guardian] is rushing out high volumes of coverage and repeating allegations by such sources as unnamed Met officers implying that ‘thousands’ of individuals were the object of illegal phone hacking, an assertion that is roundly contradicted by the Met Assistant Commissioner’s statement yesterday.”

On Wednesday the Guardian revealed that News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the News of the World, paid out more than £1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal evidence of its journalists’ repeated involvement in the use of criminal methods to get stories.

The select committee said yesterday it would be calling senior managers from News International to give evidence as early as next week to clarify what they knew about malpractice by journalists at the News of the World.

The inquiry is expected to call the former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, who is now the Conservative party’s director of communications. Coulson resigned after the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed in 2007 for tapping the phone of members of the royal household.

Earlier today, the Liberal Democrats referred the Metropolitan Police inquiry into phone hacking by journalists at the paper to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Chris Huhne, the Lib Dem home office spokesman, has written to IPCC chairman Nick Hardwick asking for an inquiry into Scotland Yard’s 2006 investigation into widespread phone hacking by journalists and private investigators.

Huhne wrote to Hardwick saying that an independent inquiry was required because the Metropolitan Police “cannot act as judge and jury in its own trial”.

The Lib Dem MP added that given the “scale and scope” of the Guardian’s revelations, “the possibility that other journalists and investigators were involved must now be seriously considered”.

Yesterday Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner John Yates said no additional evidence has come to light and no further investigation was required. However, Keir Starmer QC, the director of public prosecutions, said he had ordered an “urgent examination” of material provided by the police in the News of the World case three years ago.

“The Metropolitan Police cannot act as judge and jury in its own trial. Only an independent inquiry can properly consider any possible neglect of duty by the Specialist Operations Department into the original investigation,” Huhne wrote.

“Given the scale and scope of the allegations, the possibility that other journalists and investigators were involved must now be seriously considered. The review by the director of public prosecutions is a tacit admission that the review by assistant commissioner Yates was rushed, and supports the case for a full, independent inquiry by the IPCC into the original police investigation,” he said.

“These allegations have serious implications for privacy laws and freedom of the press in this country, and as such must be investigated thoroughly. When the civil courts are recording large settlements to hush up potentially criminal activity, public authorities have a duty to investigate the matter fully.”

Former senior Scotland Yard officer Brian Paddick also called for an independent inquiry.

Paddick, the former deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, said there should be an independent, external review of the force’s investigation into phone-hacking.

The Met’s assistant commissioner, John Yates, said yesterday that Scotland Yard would not be reopening its files on Goodman because no new evidence had come to light and the original inquiry had concluded that phone hacking had occurred in only a minority of cases.

However, the Guardian’s allegations focus on the activities of many other journalists at the paper, drawing on separate evidence kept secret under a £1m series of deals agreed by its parent company, News International.

The former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, one of those whose phone was allegedly hacked, told the BBC’s Newsnight that Yates’s statement’s had not gone far enough.

“Frankly he has come out, he has defined in a very narrow way what he is going to look at, and then gives a report that everything is OK,” he said.

Paddick told the same programme that Yates should not be criticised for dealing with a brief referring just to the Goodman investigation. But he said Yates was not sufficiently distanced from the original investigation to launch a fresh review.

“John Yates said that he had a degree of independence because he was not involved in the initial investigation,” Paddick added.

“But he is now in charge of the department that did that initial investigtaion, so not only have we got the Metropolitan Police investigating themselves as far as this is concerned, but the department that investigated it investigating themselves.

“There must be some degree of independence here in this investigation, at least an outside force looking at it if not the Independent Police Complaints Commission.”

Mark Stephens, a lawyer at Finers Stephens Innocent, said Yates’s statement did not “address the possibility that there had been a criminal attempt or a potential criminal conspiracy”.

“I think Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, will force the police to reopen this investigation,” he told Radio 4′s Today programme this morning.

Legal experts said the Yard’s decision would not affect the ability of alleged hacking victims to sue the News of the World for breach of privacy.

Stephens said several legal firms had been approached by people who thought they might have been the target of the News of the World’s activities.

“Aggrieved celebrities are contacting lawyers across London,” Stephens said. “I had two calls yesterday – one from somebody who has been identified by the Guardian as having been hacked and also the private office of somebody who believes they may have been.”

The Guardian also revealed today that the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, and the former Newcastle United manager Alan Shearer were among those whose private telephone messages were recorded by a private investigator working for the News of the World.

Both men are said to have left messages on the mobile phone of Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, who sued the newspaper last year, according to sources familiar with the police investigation.

The prospect of legal action by victims comes after three fresh inquiries were launched yesterday into the conduct of News of the World journalists following the Guardian’s disclosures that Rupert Murdoch’s News Group company paid £1m to keep secret the use of apparently criminal methods to get stories.

The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, ordered an urgent review of the evidence relating to phone hacking gathered in the investigation of the News of the World reporter Clive Goodman, who was jailed in January 2007 for obtaining information illegally.

A powerful Commons select committee said it would be calling senior managers from News International to give evidence as early as next week to clarify what they knew about malpractice by journalists at the News of the World.

The inquiry by the culture, media and sport select committee is expected to call the former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, who resigned after Goodman was jailed and is now the Conservative party’s director of communications.

The Press Complaints Commission also announced it was conducting an inquiry.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has defended Coulson, saying he did “an excellent job in a proper, upright way”.

The parliamentary inquiry will focus on executives at News International, including Rebekah Wade, the outgoing Sun editor who has been promoted to News International chief executive; Stuart Kuttner, the News of the World’s outgoing managing editor; Colin Myler, the current News of the World editor; and Les Hinton, the former chairman of News International. Hinton left News International in December 2007 to become the New York-based chief executive of anther News Corporation subsidiary, Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal.

John Whittingdale, the chairman of the culture select committee, said he was particularly keen to question Hinton, who told a previous hearing he was “absolutely convinced” that Goodman was the only person who knew about the phone hacking at the paper.

Whittingdale added that he was “completely shocked” that News Group had paid out more than £1m to settle cases involving illegal surveillance and said he would be asking Hinton whether he wished to amend the evidence he gave the committee then.

Another member of the committee, Labour MP Paul Farrelly, said Hinton would be asked “whether he wishes to correct, or amplify, his evidence”.

“That reopens our inquiry and, if we are not satisfied with the answers, parliament can potentially take the rare – but reputationally serious – step of finding witnesses in contempt,” he wrote on the Guardian’s Comment is Free website.

News International said last night it was “prevented by confidentiality obligations from discussing certain allegations made in the Guardian newspaper”.

The company added that its journalists had complied with relevant legislation and codes of conduct since February 2007, after the Goodman case and Coulson’s resignation.

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CPS to ‘urgently review’ News of the World case

July 9th, 2009 | No Comments

• Metropolitan Police rules out new investigation
• News International: ‘Confidentiality obligations’ prevent comment on ‘certain’ Guardian allegations
• Andy Coulson may face Commons culture select committee
• David Cameron defends his communications chief
• Gordon Brown: ‘This raises serious questions’

The Crown Prosecution Service today said it would undertake an urgent review of evidence in the News of the World phone hacking case, after the Metropolitan Police revealed it did not plan a further investigation of the allegations.

However, Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, now the Tory communications chief, could be grilled by MPs for a Commons inquiry into the affair.

Keir Starmer QC, the director of public prosecutions, said he had ordered an “urgent examination” of material provided by the police in the News of the World case three years ago. He added that the process will take time but he hopes to make a further statement in coming days.

“I have no reason to consider that there was anything inappropriate in the prosecutions that were undertaken in this case,” Starmer added.

“In the light of the fresh allegations that have been made, some preliminary inquiries have been undertaken and I have now ordered an urgent examination of the material that was supplied to the CPS by the police three years ago.

“I am taking this action to satisfy myself and assure the public that the appropriate actions were taken in relation to that material.”

John Yates, the Metropolitan Police’s assistant commissioner, said that no further evidence had come to light since Scotland Yard’s original investigation, which led to the News of the World’s royal editor, Clive Goodman, and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, being jailed for four and six months respectively in January 2007 after they were found guilty of hacking into the mobile phones of royal household staff. Coulson also resigned after Goodman was jailed in January 2007.

Speaking outside Scotland Yard in central London, Yates said he was not involved in the original Mulcaire and Goodman investigation and had reviewed the facts of the case with “an independent mind”.

He added that Mulcaire and Goodman targeted potentially “hundreds” of people, but the pair “used the tactic [of phone-hacking] against a … small group of individuals”. He said all those individuals were notified that their phones had been targeted. “Where there was tapping they were contacted by police,” Yates said.

“In the vast majority of cases [the Met originally looked into] there was insufficient evidence to show that tapping had actually been achieved. No additional evidence has come to light since this [case] was concluded … no further investigation is required.”

Yates added that the original investigation had “not uncovered any evidence that John Prescott’s phoneline had been tapped”.

John Whittingdale MP, the Conservative chair of the Commons culture select committee, said today it was “highly likely” to call Coulson to give evidence as part of an investigation into how journalists at the paper obtained information and whether executives knew about the methods they employed.

The investigation has been prompted by the Guardian’s revelations that News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the Sunday tabloid, has paid a total of £1m in out-of-court settlements to three people whose mobile phones were hacked into. They included Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, who received £700,000.

That has prompted a political storm today, with Home Office minister David Hanson forced to take emergency questions from angry MPs on the matter during a hastily-convened session at the House of Commons this morning.

News of the World parent company News International today broke its silence on the phone-hacking affair, but did not deny any of the Guardian’s allegations.

The company said its journalists fully complied with relevant legislation and codes of conduct since February 2007, after the Goodman case and Coulson’s resignation, but that it was legally bound to not discuss some of the Guardian’s allegations.

“News International is prevented by confidentiality obligations from discussing certain allegations made in the Guardian newspaper today,” the company said.

“Since February 2007, News International has continued to work with its journalists and its industry partners to ensure that its journalists fully comply with both the relevant legislation and the rigorous requirements of the PCC’s Code of Conduct. At the same time, we will not shirk from vigorously defending our right and proper role to expose wrongdoing in the public interest.”

Gordon Brown, the prime minister, has also mentioned the row about phone-hacking today at a press conference in L’Aquila, Italy, where he is attending the G8 summit.

“I am not aware of the details of what is being talked about, other than that there is an issue on this in London,” Brown said. “I think this raises questions that are serious and will obviously have to be considered, but I understand that the police are looking at a statement later today and I do not think I should say any more than that.”

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, is facing calls for Coulson to quit as his director of communications. This morning Cameron was forced to defend the former News of the World editor, telling reporters outside his home in London: “It’s wrong for newspapers to breach people’s privacy with no justification. That is why Andy Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World two and a half years ago.

“Of course I knew about that resignation before offering him the job. But I believe in giving people a second chance. As director of communications for the Conservatives he does an excellent job in a proper, upright way at all times.”

Some of the most powerful figures in Rurpert Murdoch’s News Corporation media empire will also be asked to give evidence by MPs on the culture select committee when they begin their phone-hacking investigation next Tuesday.

They include Rebekah Wade, the outgoing Sun editor who has been promoted to News International chief executive; Stuart Kuttner, the News of the World’s outgoing managing editor; Colin Myler, the current News of the World editor; and Les Hinton, the former chairman of News International.

Whittingdale also said that Nick Davies, the Guardian journalist who broke the story, will be asked to appear at the hearing about the controversy. Coulson will be asked to give evidence after that hearing has taken place.

The select committee quizzed Hinton, who ran Rupert Murdoch’s stable of British newspapers until the end of 2007, about phone hacking at the News of the World during an inquiry earlier that year into self-regulation of the press.

That was prompted, in part, by the arrest of former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman in August 2006 on charges of obtaining information illegally. Goodman was jailed in January 2007, prompting Coulson’s resignation.

Two months later, Hinton told MPs on the culture select committee: “I believe that Clive Goodman was the only person who knew what was going on.”

Hinton is now based in New York as chief executive of Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones, part of Murdoch’s News Corporation.

The Press Complaints Commission has today said it may reopen its 2007 investigation into phone hacking by newspaper journalists. The PCC also said it would investigate any new allegations about potentially illegal activity “without delay”.

Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw has said the affair raises questions for the Tory leader. “David Cameron, the police and the Press Complaints Commission all have questions to answer in relation to today’s Guardian revelations,” he said in a message posted on Twitter this morning.

The Guardian revealed yesterday that Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, the News of the World’s parent company, has paid out more than £1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal evidence of his journalists’ repeated involvement in the use of criminal methods to get stories.

Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, received a £700,000 payment from News Group.

The methods used by the News of the World came to light after Goodman was jailed. Coulson was editing the paper at the time and resigned when Goodman was jailed.

News International executives, including Coulson, said they did not know about Goodman’s actions and that he was acting alone.

Former home secretary Charles Clarke told Radio 4′s Today Programme this morning: “I think it is outrageous. I think we do need action immediately.

“News International has to publish the full list of those that they have bugged. I think that David Cameron has to sack Andy Coulson because his denial is very narrow in the extreme. I think David Cameron himself has to be much clearer about the situation.”

Former cabinet minister Geoff Hoon said: “It is hard to see how in these circumstances Andy Coulson can continue as David Cameron’s communications chief while such a cloud hangs over his reputation. David Cameron must make clear what action he intends to take on this matter.”

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said: “At the very least Andy Coulson was responsible for a newspaper that was out of control and at worst he was personally implicated.”

Clarke also told the BBC the police should be asked why they failed to take action after learning about the extent of the phone hacking and the number of people targeted by News of the World journalists.

They included Taylor, former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes, celebrity PR Max Clifford, model Elle MacPherson and football agent Sky Andrew. News Group denied all knowledge of the hacking, but Taylor last year sued them on the basis that they must have known about it.

“I think that the home secretary should be asking the chief inspector of constabulary for a full report about the police behaviour in this whole incident,” Clarke said.

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott, one of the alleged targets of the hacking, also said he wanted answers from the police. “I find it staggering that there could be a list known to the police of people who had their phone tapped.

“I’m named as one of them. For such a criminal act not to be reported to me, and for action not to be taken against the people who have done it, reflects very badly on the police, and I want to know their answer.”

Prescott also called on Cameron to dismiss Coulson.

Coulson said yesterday: “This story relates to an alleged payment made after I left the News of the World two and half years ago. I took full responsibility at the time for what happened on my watch but without my knowledge and resigned.”

John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons culture committee, said he wanted to summon newspaper editors to answer “serious” questions about the allegations.

“There are a number of questions I would like to put to News International on the basis of what the Guardian has reported,” he said.

His committee would examine the issue “as a matter of urgency” at a scheduled meeting later today, he said. “It may well be that we decide we wish to have somebody from News International to appear before us.”

He said he had seen no “direct evidence” that assurances previously given to the committee by the publisher on the matter had been untrue.

But Whittingdale added: “If that is the case it does beg the question why News International have apparently paid huge sums of money in settlement of actions in the courts. That is a question I would wish to put to News International.”

It is possible that Coulson could be called to give evidence if the committee decides to reopen its investigation into the affair.

News International executives told the committee in 2007 that they were unaware of Goodman’s activities or those of Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who worked for the company.

He was jailed along with Goodman in January 2007.

The Press Complaints Commission investigated the allegations but failed to find evidence of wrongdoing. It did not question Coulson as part of its investigation.

The payments to Taylor and two other individuals secured secrecy in three cases that threatened to expose evidence of Murdoch’s journalists using private investigators who illegally hacked into the mobile phone messages of numerous public figures to gain unlawful access to confidential personal data, including tax records, social security files, bank statements and itemised phone bills. Cabinet ministers, MPs, actors and sports stars were all targets of the private investigators.

The evidence unearthed by the Guardian may open the door to hundreds more legal actions by victims of News Group, the Murdoch company that publishes the News of the World and the Sun, as well as provoking police inquiries into reporters who were involved and the senior executives responsible for them.

• To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000.

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Met pressed to investigate hacking

July 9th, 2009 | No Comments

• John Prescott says allegations reflect badly on police
• David Cameron resists calls to sack communications chief
• News International is not above the law, says Charles Clarke

The Metropolitan police was coming under mounting pressure today to launch a new investigation into Guardian allegations that the News of the World and other newspapers used criminal methods to get stories by hacking the phones of numerous public figures.

The former deputy prime minister John Prescott, one of the alleged targets of illegal phone-hacking, said he wanted answers from the police. “I find it staggering that there could be a list known to the police of people who had their phone tapped.

“I’m named as one of them. For such a criminal act not to be reported to me, and for action not to be taken against the people who have done it, reflects very badly on the police, and I want to know their answer.”

Prescott called on the Conservative party leader, David Cameron, to dismiss his director of communications, Andy Coulson, who was the deputy editor and then editor of the News of the World when journalists were using illegal methods. Coulson said yesterday: “This story relates to an alleged payment made after I left the News of the World two and half years ago. I took full responsibility at the time for what happened on my watch but without my knowledge and resigned.”

But Prescott said: “I think that David Cameron has to sack Andy Coulson because his denial is very narrow in the extreme. I think David Cameron himself has to be much clearer about the situation.”

This morning Cameron resisted calls to remove Coulson, telling reporters outisde his home in London: “It’s wrong for newspapers to breach people’s privacy with no justification. That is why Andy Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World two and a half years ago.

“Of course I knew about that resignation before offering him the job. But I believe in giving people a second chance. As director of communications for the Conservatives he does an excellent job in a proper, upright way at all times.”

Earlier, the PR agent Max Clifford, who is also one those whose phones was allegedly hacked into, asked: “Why has this just come out? According to the Guardian, it’s come from police sources. If the police had this information, why didn’t they act on it?”

Speaking to the BBC, he said: “There are lots of questions that need to be answered, serious questions.”

Responding to the claims, the Metropolitan police service (MPS) pointed out that its original investigation led to the conviction of the News of the World reporter Clive Goodman in 2007. “The MPS carried out an investigation into the alleged unlawful interception of telephone calls. Officers liaised closely with the Crown Prosecution Service. Two people were charged and subsequently convicted and jailed. We are not prepared to comment further.”

The London mayor, Boris Johnson, who was one of the figures allegedly targeted and is chairman of Metropolitan Police Authority, was challenged on the issue on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme. “As chairman of the MPA it would not be right to interfere in an operational decision they [the Met] might make.” He added that he was “confident” that if the police had a duty to investigate they would.

He said there was no need for him to contact the police over the matter. “It sounds like there is a full account in the Guardian,” he said.

John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Commons culture committee, said he wanted to summon newspaper editors to answer “serious” questions about the allegations.

“There are a number of questions I would like to put to News International on the basis of what the Guardian has reported,” he said.

His committee would examine the issue “as a matter of urgency” at a scheduled meeting later today, he said. “It may well be that we decide we wish to have somebody from News International to appear before us.”

He said he had seen no “direct evidence” that assurances previously given to the committee by the publisher on the matter had been untrue.

But he added: “If that is the case it does beg the question why News International have apparently paid huge sums of money in settlement of actions in the courts. That is a question I would wish to put to News International.”

The former Cabinet minister Geoff Hoon said: “It is hard to see how in these circumstances Andy Coulson can continue as David Cameron’s communications chief while such a cloud hangs over his reputation. David Cameron must make clear what action he intends to take on this matter.”

The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said: “At the very least Andy Coulson was responsible for a newspaper that was out of control and at worst he was personally implicated.

“Either way, a future prime minister cannot have someone who is involved in these sort of underhand tactics. The exact parallel is with Damian McBride.

“If it is more than a thousand [phone taps] it seems most unlikely to me to have been just one journalist. There needs to be a full investigation.”

The former home secretary Charles Clarke said: “The home secretary should be asking the chief inspector of constabulary about police behavior in this whole incident. Serious questions need to be answered.”

He questioned why the police did not launch a wider investigation after the discovery that Goodman had been tapping phones for stories.

He told the Today programme: “News International needs to publish a full list of all those who it has bugged. The suggestion that News International is above the law is simply not acceptable … I think Murdoch is such a powerful figure that people don’t want to take him on gratuitously.”

He also called for Coulson to be sacked from his Conservative party role.

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