Leveson Inquiry: PM personally quizzed Andy Coulson over phone hacking

DAVID Cameron personally questioned his former director of communications over his involvement in phone hacking before taking him on to his staff, the Leveson inquiry heard yesterday.

The Prime Minister called up Andy Coulson while the latter was on holiday to question him over the revelations that a News of the World reporter had hacked into people’s phones to get stories.

Mr Coulson told the inquiry yesterday that he had told Mr Cameron he “knew nothing” of the activities. He was hired soon after to take up his post in Mr Cameron’s inner circle.

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The former editor of the News of the World also told the inquiry yesterday that his involvement in the phone hacking scandal was never raised again while he worked for Mr Cameron, even as further revelations of hacking were emerging.

However, he then resigned from his post as Downing Street director of communications in January last year, saying the questions over his previous job were preventing him from carrying out his new role.

Mr Coulson also acknowledged in his evidence that he had held News International shares while working for Mr Cameron in Downing Street, something he conceded yesterday “could have raised the potential for conflict [of interest]”.

It also emerged that he had been privy to top secret meetings and documents at No 10 despite not having been given the top level of security clearance.

Mr Coulson was given “SC” status – meaning security checked – rather than “DV” status, or developed vetting, a more common status for someone of his senior position.

The fact that he took a lower level of security check has raised questions previously over whether Mr Cameron’s team deliberately opted not to give him the higher level, thereby avoiding more intense scrutiny of his personal life and professional history.

But he claimed his lower security status did not block him from seeing sensitive documents. “My understanding is that SC allows occasional access to top secret material,” he said.

However, Downing Street and News International will have been relieved after yesterday’s evidence that no further bombshells emerged. But ministers will be bracing themselves again today, as former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks gives evidence.

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Mr Coulson was asked by counsel to the inquiry to go over his appointment as Mr Cameron’s director of communications in 2007. After resigning from the News of the World, he said he had received sympathetic messages from both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown but did not remember whether Mr Cameron had done the same.

With the job offer to work with the Conservatives in place, he said he received a call from Mr Cameron while on holiday in Cornwall. “Mr Cameron sought assurances about his knowledge of the hacking at the News of the World. I was able to repeat what I said publicly, that I knew nothing about the Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire case in terms of what they did,” he said.

Asked whether any further assurances were sought by Mr Cameron in relation to matter, Mr Coulson replied: “Not that I recall.”

He insisted he had not been given the job in order to “deliver” News International titles to the Conservatives, saying his appointment was never seen as a “guarantee of the support” of either the Sun or the News of the World.