Phone tap row: David Cameron's chief spin doctor to help police with inquiries

Published on Monday 6 September 2010 17:42

FORMER prime minister Tony Blair could have been one of the victims in the phone tapping by the News of the World when the current head of communications in Downing Street was the paper's editor, it has emerged.

• Andrew Coulson: Has denied any knowledge of tapping

Andrew Coulson, who is now David Cameron's chief spindoctor, has offered to help police with their inquiries into what happened when he was editor as Scotland Yard said it was looking at new evidence.

It came as angry MPs demanded a full judicial inquiry into claims made by former journalists at the News of the World that Mr Coulson had ordered them to hack into phones.

The allegations centre around phone tapping carried out by News of the World journalists in 2006, which ultimately led to the paper's royal correspondent Clive Goodman and another man who carried out work for the paper, Glenn Mulcair, being jailed.

At the time Mr Couslon resigned because the hacking had taken place on his watch, but denied any knowledge of the phone hacking.

Yesterday the government gave Mr Coulson its full backing when Home Secretary Theresa May was forced to answer an urgent question on the issue from West Bromwich MP Tom Watson.

Ms May told parliament it was "right" for the police to say they would examine any new evidence in the News of the World phone hacking case and the government would "await the outcome" of any further action.

She said the Metropolitan Police had indicated that "if there was further evidence, they would look at it".

But Labour stepped up the pressure on the government, with shadow home secretary Alan Johnson calling Mr Coulson's position "untenable".

After asking his urgent question, Mr Watson added: "The integrity of our democracy is under scrutiny around the world. The Home Secretary must not join the conspiracy to make it a laughing stock."

He also asked: "Can you confirm that former prime minister Tony Blair has formally asked Scotland Yard whether his phone was hacked?"

Others claimed that the police had not followed up new evidence, even though John Yates, the assistant Metropolitan police commissioner, confirmed earlier that the police were looking at new evidence after discussions with the New York Times, which has carried recent allegations on the story.

Former minister Chris Bryant who was one of the MPs whose phone was tapped in 2006, warned that the same could have happened to "dozens" of other MPs.

Pointing to Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes he warned that the government benches also had MPs who had been targeted.

Meanwhile, from the government benches, Lib Dem MP Adrian Saunders demanded a full judicial inquiry.

Tory John Whitingdale, chairman of the culture sport and media committee, noted that in a recent investigation it had suspected Mr Coulson was involved in the phone tapping, but could find no evidence to prove it.