Andy Coulson: Boy from a comprehensive school offered a common touch to Eton masters

ANDREW Edward Coulson describes himself as a “former journalist and political adviser” in his witness statement released to the Leveson inquiry yesterday.

A Comprehensive schoolboy, whose parents lived in a council house in his childhood, his career in newspapers began on the Basildon Echo in 1986 as a junior reporter.

Within two years, he was on the Sun where, under a certain Piers Morgan, he made his name on the paper’s showbiz column.

Spotted early by News International’s executives, he made the step up to deputy editor of the News of the World in 2000 before replacing Rebekah Wade as editor of the largest-selling English language newspaper in the world in 2003.

In 2007, he resigned after his Royal correspondent Clive Goodman was sentenced to six months for phone hacking.

Soon, however, he was back in work after George Osborne recruited him to run the Conservative opposition’s communications business.

Initially, he said yesterday, he was “reluctant”. But the lure of the job proved too much.

When the Conservatives won power in 2010, he decided to stay on, taking on a publicly paid job as No 10’s director of communications.

Colleagues speak of a fiercely professional and focused boss who ended up being respected by Tories and LibDems alike for his advice on communications.

With Cameron and Osborne having emerged from privileged backgrounds, his instinctive feel for the ordinary people was seen as crucial.

But with the hacking affair casting a lengthening shadow over the News of the World – forcing Mr Coulson at one stage to give evidence at the trial of Tommy Sheridan – he decided to resign in January 2011.

He remains adamant that he did not know about the hacking at the NoW during his time.

His statement yesterday adds: “I am now a freelance consultant.”

He was replaced on 2 February 2011 as director of communications by former BBC Global News Controller of English Craig Oliver.