Boris ‘may have perverted course of justice’ over phone-hacking
By Ian Dunt Follow @IanDunt
Boris Johnson may have perverted the course of justice by branding phone-hacking allegations "codswallop" while a police investigation was ongoing.
The pressure on the London mayor increased after Kit Malthouse, deputy mayor for policing, offered conflicting accounts about when John Yates told him a police investigation had been re-opened.
Mr Malthouse has now said that he was told on September 10th 2010 that the investigation had been re-opened on the back of a New York Times expose.
He had previously said that he had received no specific briefings on phone-hacking or discussed it with senior officers in September.
Green and Labour Metropolitan Police Authority (MP) members have said it was "inconceivable" Mr Johnson did not know about this when he branded the phone-hacking allegations "patently politically motivated" and "a load of codswallop" a few days later.
Jenny Jones, Green member, told Mr Malthouse today that if Mr Johnson knew there was a phone-hacking investigation before he made the comments he was "perverting the course of justice".
Mr Malthouse told Ms Jones that she might "be getting into deep water with that comment".
Ms Jones hit back that the room had several police officers and they could arrest her if they wanted, according to reports of the meeting.
During the meeting, Mr Malthouse admitted he had been briefed by Mr Yates on phone-hacking in September but insisted he didn't tell the mayor about it.
"The mayor is a personality who likes to express himself in certain ways," Mr Malthouse said.
Joanne McCartney, Labour's lead member on the MPA, said: "John Yates was offering extra information to the prime minister and to the chair of the MPA. It seems illogical that the mayor wouldn't also have been given the same level of briefing.
"We know new people were being interviewed and lines of enquiry were being pursued when the mayor dismissed this all as a put up job. He now has serious questions to answer about his role and why it appears as though he just didn't want this looked into."
Acting Met commissioner Tim Godwin told members that corruption was "not endemic" at the Met but admitted public perception had been damaged by the row.
"Corruption is something that we do not tolerate," he insisted.
