Phone hacking: The screw tightens
By Ian Dunt
The screws are tightening in the ongoing row over phone hacking at News of the World, with Alan Johnson suggesting an inspection of the original police investigation may be necessary.
The development follows several demands from high-ranking Labour figures for an inquiry into the allegations.
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott has demanded a judicial review while several Labour MPs want an official inquiry.
Tom Watson has written to Nick Clegg saying the Independent Press Complaints Commission (IPCC) should investigate.
Mr Johnson intervened this afternoon to say he would return to the Home Office to review files relating to the case from when he was home secretary.
“As home secretary I was concerned to ensure the Metropolitan police conducted a rigorous and thorough investigation into all of the facts and allegations relating to the News of the World phone tapping case,” he said.
“The allegations were extremely serious and involved people from many walks of public life including democratically elected politicians.
“Because I felt uncomfortable with the progress being made in the investigation I considered calling in Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to take over the investigation,” he continued.
“However, following reassuring conversations with senior officers in Scotland Yard I decided not to. In the light of the further serious allegations that have surfaced recently there may now be a case for the home secretary to ask the HMIC to investigate.
“Convention allows former ministers to review papers relating to their tenure in office. It is therefore my intention to go back to the Home Office to review the files relating to the phone tapping allegations.
“I will then give whatever help I can to the current home secretary to ensure she has a complete picture of all the facts.”
The News of the World is alleged to have used phone hacking to secretly tap into the voice messages of dozens of celebrities and public figures, from politicians to sport stars and musicians.
The row resurfaced this week after a New York Times report quoted an unnamed reporter at the paper saying Andy Coulson actively encouraged him to engage in the practise.
Mr Coulson is currently head of communications at Downing Street, but he served as News of the World editor during the period referred to in the New York Times report.
The row is hugely embarrassing to the Conservative party, Rupert Murdoch’s News Group (which owns the News of the World), Scotland Yard and the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) which said it did not uncover enough new evidence to reopen the case after the Guardian exposé last year.
The various legal bids being launched over the issue raise the prospect of Mr Coulson being summoned to court to answer questions about the practise, a potentially devastating eventuality for David Cameron.
The Tory leader has repeatedly said that Mr Coulson should be given a second chance after he resigned from the paper in the wake of the one prosecution which did follow from the phone hacking scandal – that of royal editor Clive Goodman.
If the row over the current set of allegations refuses to die down, questions may be raised about Mr Cameron’s judgement in bringing Mr Coulson into Downing Street with him, especially after complaints that he had a poor general election campaign and that his current communication strategy is overly concerned with right wing, mid-market tabloids.
But the Metropolitan police, which failed to reopen the investigation into phone hacking after the Guardian piece, is currently the central target of campaigners. One unnamed source told the New York Times that it stopped short of investigating further so as to not damage its relationship with the News of the World.
Lord Prescott told the Today programme he wants more information from the police about his case.
“We are waiting for that reply by September 11th and if they fail to give us that information, which is clearly available but has to be given to us, I will seek a judicial review,” he said.
“The only way the truth can come out is really to have it properly investigated and really have a judicial review. I think it demands at least that.”
Former Labour minister Mr Watson has written to deputy prime minister Mr Clegg demanding a judicial inquiry.
“The testimony given to the New York Times is that the police did not share all the relevant information with the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS], and that, if they had done, the CPS would have reached a different conclusion. These are clear grounds for a judicial inquiry,” he wrote.
“I think that information should be made available to the people concerned.”
In a seperate letter to Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, Mr Watson said the Met’s “historic and continued mishandling of this affair is bringing your force, and hence our democracy, into disrepute”.
Former assistant commissioner Brian Paddick, who is alleged to have been one of the target of the phone hacks, is also demanding a judicial review.
“It would appear that the Metropolitan Police may have deliberately withheld from this serving senior officer the information that his phone had been hacked. Please confirm whether this is true,” Mr Watson wrote.
“Your conduct of this matter is being scrutinised all over the world. So far, it is bringing shame – as has News International – on our country.”
The row appeared to have unsettled Mr Cameron’s coalition partners as well. Adrian Sanders, a Lib Dem member of the culture, media and sport select committee, is also quoted saying an inquiry would be appropriate.
“If the allegations in the New York Times are substantiated there is a real case for the police to investigate. Under police investigation they may be able to get more information out of Mr Coulson than we were in a select committee,” he told the Guardian.
“I think he would feel the need to elaborate a little more than he did in our committee.”
Former Respect MP George Galloway, also an alleged target of the hackings, is understood to have instructed his lawyers not to consider any out-of-court settlement in his breach of privacy claim unless News Group makes a full disclosure on the issue.
The Independent reported that Mr Galloway is not interested in making any money from the case, but is intent on the matter being aired in a public forum.
A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said: “The Met does not consider the issues raised by the New York Times accurately reflect how the investigation was conducted.”
Meanwhile, the News of the World has admitted that one of its reporters is currently suspended after allegations of phone hacking.
Its managing editor said the incident was being investigated. It is also the subject of a legal action by the alleged victim.
