News of the World scandal: Cameron promises independent inquiry into phone hacking

Published on Friday 8 July 2011 11:46

A JUDGE-LED inquiry will look into how the News of the World phone hacking scandal was allowed to happen, the Prime Minister announced today.

• The Prime Minister accepted responsibility for hiring former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his communications chief

David Cameron spoke out the day after News International's closure of the 168-year-old Sunday newspaper sent shockwaves around the media.

Mr Cameron said "no stone will be left unturned" and that a second inquiry would be held to examine the ethics and culture of the press.

He said that the Press Complaints Commission had failed, adding: "I believe we need a new system entirely".

Acknowledging his own part in a scandal that has reached the corridors of power, Mr Cameron said party leaders "were so keen to win the support of newspapers we turned a blind eye to the need to sort this issue."

His comments came as his former communications chief and News of the World editor Andy Coulson was arrested over alleged phone hacking and illegal payments to police officers.

Scotland Yard said Mr Coulson, who they did not identify, was being quizzed at a south London police station by officers from Operation Weeting - the phone hack inquiry - and officers from Operation Elveden, the investigation into illegal payments to police.

Mr Cameron said the decision to hire Mr Coulson was "mine and mine alone", adding: "I take full responsibility for it."

The Prime Minister said the bulk of the first inquiry, which would also cover other newspapers and the failure of the first Scotland Yard investigation into phone hacking, could not be carried out until after the new police probe was complete.

But he said a second inquiry would begin immediately into the culture, ethics and practices of the British press.

"Police investigations can only get you so far," he told a Downing Street press conference.

"What people really want to know is what happened and how it was allowed to happen.

"That is why the Deputy Prime Minister (Nick Clegg) and I have agreed it's right and proper to establish a full public inquiry to get to the bottom of what happened.

"A judge needs to be in charge so there is no question that it's totally independent and things are done properly."

More on the NOTW closure:

• News of the World: Advertisers' boycott at heart of paper's collapse

• News of the World: Fresh doubt if Murdoch & Co is fit to run BSkyB

• News of the World: After 168 years, paper becomes the story as News of the World's fate is sealed

• News of the World: From surgeons to soap stars - scores of Scots hacked

• News of the World: Shock for Scottish staff as paper is closed

• News of the World: the phone-hacking timeline

• News of the World: How the pressure piled up

Mr Cameron also intensified pressure on News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of the News of the World at the time of Milly Dowler's phone being hacked.

Referring to reports that she had offered her resignation, he said: "In this situation I would have taken it."

• Poll: Should Rebekah Brooks resign over the phone hacking scandal?

He said that the judge-led inquiry would look into the questions of "why did the first police investigation fail so abysmally; what exactly was going on at the News of the World and what was going on at other newspapers?"

On the prospective takeover of BSkyB by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, Mr Cameron said this would now take "some time" to decide after recent events.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt was following "the proper legal processes and procedures", he said.

"His role is to take the advice of independent regulators and, as his department have made clear this morning - given the events of recent days - this will take some time."

He defended his decision to hire Mr Coulson and insisted his work for the Tories and in No 10 had not been a cause for concern.

"He resigned from the News of the World because of the things that happened on his watch. I decided to give him a second chance - and no one has ever raised serious concerns about how he did his job for me.

"But the second chance didn't work out and he had to resign all over again.

"The decision to hire him was mine - and mine alone - and I take full responsibility for it."

Responding to reporters' questions, Mr Cameron insisted he commissioned a firm to carry out a background check before employing Mr Coulson, whom he described as a "friend".

The Prime Minister said he had seen his former spin doctor since he exited Downing Street.

Mr Cameron said: "I don't know what these people at News International did know or didn't know. Frankly, I don't think any of us know what they did know or didn't know.

"The key thing is they are going to be investigated by the police and when they get investigated by the police and when the truth is out, it won't be a question of whether or not they have jobs or whether or not they resigned from those jobs, it's a question of whether they are going to be prosecuted, whether they are going to be convicted, whether they are going to be punished."

Mr Cameron said: "I took a conscious choice to give someone who had screwed up a second chance. He worked for me, he worked for me well, but actually he decided in the end the second chance wouldn't work, he had to resign all over again for the first offence."