Reports: Rebekah Brooks arrested over new charges
By politics.co.uk staff
Rebekah Brooks and her husband have reportedly been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
The Metropolitan police confirmed a 43-year old woman from Oxfordshire had been arrested over the charges.
Sky News reported it was Ms Brooks, former editor of the News of the World and one of Rupert Murdoch's chief lieutenants before the phone-hacking scandal broke.
Ms Brooks has already been questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption. These are new allegations.
"Police have today arrested six people at addresses in London, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Hertfordshire," the Met said in a statement.
"The co-ordinated arrests were made between approximately 05:00 GMT and 07:00 GMT this morning by officers from Operation Weeting, the inquiry into the phone-hacking of voicemail boxes.
"All six – five men and one woman – were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977."
The arrest of Charlie Brooks, her husband, will be a personal blow to the prime minister, who has counted him among his friends for 30 years.
