News of the World phone hacking: live coverage

With pressure building on Rebekah Brooks and News International, follow all the latest developments in the phone-hacking scandal including PMQs and the emergency debate in the Commons 12.07pm: Miliband says Cameron should appoint a senior figure, potentially an judge, to lead an inquiry. It should have the power to take evidence on oath. And it should cover the police, as well as the media. Cameron says he does not want to jeopardise the police investigation. But it may be possible to make a start on some aspects. Sometimes inquiries are set out too quickly, he says. Miliband says it is important that work starts now. Cameron launched the Gibson inquiry into collusion in torture even though criminal cases were pending. Miliband turns to the BSkyB bid. The public will react “with disbelief” if this deal goes ahead when News International is the subject of a major criminal investigation. Cameron says that although the Gibson inquiry has been set up, it has not started work. “But, believe me, I want us to get on with this issue,” he says. On BSkyB, he says the government has followed the correct legal processes. Jeremy Hunt his handling the matter in a quasi-judicial role. Only yesterday Miliband himself said that plurality issues were separate from News International ethics. 12.04pm: Ed Miliband says the whole country has been appalled by the disclosures about phone hacking. The idea that anyone could hack into Milly Dowler’s phone is “immoral and a disgrace”. Will Cameron support the call for a full inquiry to take place, as soon as practical. Yes, says Cameron. • Government agrees to hold an inquiry. Cameron says there may be a need for more than one inquiry. There is a major police investigation underway, he says. It does not involve police officers from the original investigation “that so clearly did not get to the truth”. We need to find out why the original inquiry did not get to the bottom of what happened, he says. There also needs to be an inquiry into the media. It may be possible to start some of this before the police inquiry is over. Cameron says he is willing to discuss this with Miliband and other party leaders. 12.02pm: Cameron is taking questions now. The first two have been about banks and international aid. 11.58am: I’ve just received this statement from Sir Paul Stephenson , the Metropolitan police commissioner In view of the widespread media coverage and public interest, I am taking the unusual step of issuing this statement. As you know Operation WEETING – the investigation into phone hacking -commenced on 26 January. I can confirm that on 20 June 2011 the MPS washanded a number of documents by News International, through theirbarrister, Lord Macdonald QC. Our initial assessment shows that these documents include information relating to alleged inappropriate payments to a small number of MPS officers. Discussions were held with the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) at the time and they are content that this matter should continue to be investigated through Operation ELVEDEN under the direction of DAC Sue Akers, in partnership with our Directorate of Professional Standards. At this time we have not seen any evidence requiring a referral to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) in respect of any senior officer. Whilst I am deeply concerned by recent developments surrounding phone hacking they are a product of the meticulous and thorough work of Operation WEETING, which will continue. Operation ELVEDEN will be equally thorough and robust. Anyone identified of wrongdoing can expect the full weight of disciplinary measures and if appropriate action through the criminal courts. • The Metropolitan police admits a “small number” of officers seem to have taken money from the News of the World. But senior officers were not involved, it says. 11.54am: The Tory MP David Davis, the former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Fowler and Alastair Campbell have all just told the Daily Politics show that they think News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB should be put on hold. 11.50am: PMQs is coming up soon. I’ll be focusing on the phone hacking exchanges. 11.50am: According to colleagues, Lloyds are also pulling advertising from this week’s News of the World. 11.24am: PMQs is coming soon. First, here’s a mid-morning summary. • Simon Greenberg, News International’s director of corporate affairs, has said that the company is “close” to finding out who authorised Glenn Mulcaire to target Milly Dowler’s phone. According to PoliticsHome, Greenberg said on Radio 5 Live that it was “clear” that Rebekah Brooks did not sanction this. The BBC’s Nick Robinson has posted more on this on his blog. • Halifax has pulled adverstising from the News of the World. “In recognising and responding to consumer reaction, Halifax has cancelled an advertisement in this Sunday’s News of the World,” a spokesowoman said. “This was a tactical decision in the short term whilst we carefully consider our longer term position and its implications.” Other firms, including Renault and Mumsnet, are considering doing the same. • Andy Coulson, David Cameron’s former communications chief, has become a central focus the News of the World controversy. This follows the company’s decision to reveal that it has found emails that appear to show that Coulson authorised payments to the police. The Times – a News International paper that has until now had tended not to report the story prominently – put this on its front page today. This has prompted speculation about whether News International is sacrificing Coulson to put protect Rebekah Brooks. (See 9.00am, 9.13am and 10.35am.) • Downing Street has said that it welcomes the fact that MPs will debate calls for a public inquiry into the affair this afternoon. But MPs will not actually get the chance to vote for a public inquiry, and it is not clear yet whether Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, who will be speaking for the government in the debate, will give a commitment to set one up. • Downing Street has said that David Cameron “stands by” the statement he made about Coulson when Coulson quit his Number 10 job in January . At the time Cameron said Coulson could be “extremely proud” of what he had done for Cameron. 11.18am: The broadcasters are reporting that Sue Akers, the Metropolitan police officer in charge of the phone hacking inquiry, will give evidence to the Commons home affairs committee next week. Actually, Keith Vaz, the committee chairman, announced this yesterday. Andy Hayman and Peter Clarke, the two officers in charge of the original investigation, will also be appearing. The session will start at 12pm on Tuesday. 11.10am: There is also a call for an anti-Murdoch demonstration at Westminster at 1pm. 11.07am: And while we’re on the subject of campaigns, it’s worth mentioning the Media Standards Trust, who have launched a petition calling for a public inquiry into the phone hacking affair. 11.03am: Melissa Harrison has written a piece for Comment is free about how she launched a Twitter campaign to encourage people to urge firms to pull their advertising from the News of the World. 10.55am: The Tweetminster post I mentioned at 10.49am was a reference to a post that has just gone up on Nick Robinson’s blog. News International executives believe that they have uncovered evidence of who at the News of the World commissioned and sanctioned the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone. The evidence is said to have emerged in a document trawl carried out in the immediate aftermath of the revelation by the Guardian of the hacking of the murdered girl’s phone. I am told that the evidential jigsaw is not yet complete but executives believe they know who was responsible. Robinson says the new evidence does not contradict Rebekah Brooks’s statement yesterday that it was “inconceivable” that she know about what was going on. 10.51am: Talking of Glenn Mulcaire, BBC News have just broadcast a doorstep interview with him this morning. It must be the worst doorstep I’ve ever seen. This is all Mulcaire said. I made a statement yesterday and due to legal constraints unfortunately at this stage I can make no more comment. Thank you very much. Never mind. In case you missed it, here’s the statement he put out yesterday. I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. I’ve been to court. I’ve pleaded guilty. And I’ve gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution. Working for the News of the World was never easy. There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn’t understand that I had broken the law at all. 10.49am: The BBC believes that News International now know who commissioned Glenn Mulcaire to target Milly Dowler’s phone, according to a tweet from Tweetminster. 10.35am: Anyone who watches cop programmes knows that when gang solidarity starts to break down, the police are almost home and dry. That’s what’s so interesting about the Times story focusing on Andy Coulson and News of the World payments to police. (See 9.00am.) The Telegraph’s Benedict Brogan has got a nice take on this on his daily email morning briefing. The problem with a strategy of throwing former colleagues to the wolves is that you soon run out of colleagues. And it might encourage them to say more than they might have otherwise. The buck hasn’t stopped yet, it’s still moving. All those politicians who invested themselves personally in the NI combine must be feeling queasy this morning. 10.30am: My colleague Nick Davies, who has led the Guardian’s phone hacking investigation, has produced a comprehensive list on our data blog of all the people we now know to have been targeted by the News of the World. 10.17am: Here are what the papers are saying about the phone hacking affair in their editorial columns today. • The Times (paywall) says that it has decided to break its silence on the phone hacking scandal engulfing its sister paper, the News of the World. It says there is “much we still need to know” about the precise exten of phone hacking. But it says this is a watershed moment for British journalism. There is no doubt but that journalists are now in their version of the MPs’ expenses scandal. If there is proven to be truth in the allegations that journalists on the News of the World hacked into the voicemail of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, there will not be a journalist in the country who, after the warranted anger, will not feel shamed and depressed. There is a lot that is not yet known about this case but this much we do know: this is beyond reprehensible … We will, no doubt, learn more, and none of it is likely to be edifying. Whatever else emerges, this is a watershed moment for British journalism. What happened needs to be investigated and, in the public interest and the interests of journalism itself, brought to light. It ought to go without saying that nothing of this nature can ever happen again. But then it ought to have gone without saying that nothing of this nature could ever have happened in the first place. This is why it is so important that the truth be known. • The Financial Times (subscription) says Rebekah Brooks should go. Mr Murdoch must set aside personal loyalties and remove those executives with any involvement in the affair – whether through their role as editors or at a corporate level. That includes those responsible for handling the company’s response. For a start, Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News Corp’s UK operations, should go. Assuming the allegations are correct, as the editor of the News of the World when Ms Dowler’s phone was hacked, her position is untenable. Although she has pleaded ignorance, the final responsibility was hers. • The Independent also says Brooks should go. The alleged hacking of the Dowler phones took place when Rebekah Brooks was editor of the News of the World. Ms Brooks has since been promoted by Rupert Murdoch to chief executive of News International. Andy Coulson resigned as editor of the same newspaper in 2007 when a journalist he employed was convicted of hacking Prince William’s voice messages. It is therefore hard to see how Ms Brooks can remain in her present position, even if it is true that she was unaware of the hacking of the Dowler phones (as she claimed yesterday) when she was editor. • The Guardian says Jeremy Hunt should suspend his decision about whether to allow News Corporation to buy BSkyB. The problem is that a significant majority of people in this country are opposed to the merger: it simply doesn’t pass the commonsense “bad smell” test. So Mr Hunt should simply put the decision on ice. He should say that it is inconceivable that he should currently approve the creation of a giant media entity in this country while there are so many unanswered questions about the criminal behaviour of its employees and about the governance of the company. The people at the head of News International are the same people who paid hush money to conceal evidence of criminality within their own company and who led a news organisation which – according to the PCC chair, Peta Buscombe – lied to the regulator. • The Daily Mirror says that the News Corporation takeover of BSkyB should be put on hold. It criticises David Cameron and Ed Miliband for being too close to Murdoch. [Cameron's] close ties to News International at the very highest level are well documented and that cosy relationship undoubtedly smoothed a path for the controversial takeover. Equally, how can Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Labour Party, describing the behaviour as “immoral” and “sick”, try to nudge News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks towards the exit door, then pretend its grotesque actions should have no bearing over it controlling what we watch on TV … To enhance the power and influence over our lives of a company at the heart of a remarkable storm – particularly when further incredible revelations await – would be wrong, illogical and contrary to the public interest At the very least the deal must be put on ice – and should weak Ministers bleat they’re impotent, then they should rush legislation through Parliament to acquire powers to do the right thing. • The Daily Mail says the affair reflects badly on the police, David Cameron, the Press Complaints Commission and Jeremy Hunt. The police, sadly, come out of this terribly. Afraid of upsetting a powerful newspaper group, which employed several ex-senior officers as writers, they botched their first hacking investigation and cursorily refused a second one when further evidence was produced … This is the same David Cameron who, of course, in a disastrous misjudgment, made the disgraced NotW editor Andy Coulson his press officer. And then there is the newspaper industry itself. That the Press Complaints Commission has been dilatory is now all too painfully apparent. Bereft of any investigatory powers, it accepted — perhaps naively — News International’s lies and, together with the newspaper industry, must learn huge lessons … And finally we come to the sorry figure of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the man who, in a decision that will shame him and the Tory Party for years, refused to refer News International’s hugely contentious takeover of BskyB to the Competition Commission. How sick that now looks. There are no editorials on the subject in the Daily Telegraph, the Sun and the Daily Express. 10.05am: Crispin Blunt , the justice minister, has just told BBC News that Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, will be speaking for the government in the debate this afternoon. He will set out the government’s position on the call for an inquiry, Blunt says. But it is difficult for the government to do anything while criminal investigations are ongoing, Blunt adds. 9.56am: How is the Sun covering today’s story? “Loyally” is the word, I think. Here’s a flavour of their story. FORMER News of the World Editor Rebekah Brooks yesterday said she was “sickened” by allegations that a private eye hired by the paper hacked tragic Milly Dowler’s phone. The News International boss vowed the “strongest possible action” if it was proved rogue operator Glenn Mulcaire had intercepted the 13-year-old’s voicemail while she was missing. She branded the claims “almost too horrific to believe” as senior executives at the media company met police conducting a criminal investigation into phone hacking. Denis MacShane MP says it’s a collector’s item. 9.44am: And while we’re on the subject of campaigns, Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy is inviting readers to contact firms that advertise in the News of the World demanding that they withdraw their advertising. He says that firms that have not pulled out by lunchtime will be “named and shamed” (my phrase) in the Commons this afternoon. 9.34am: Avaaz, an online campaigning organisation, is inviting people to sign an online petition saying News Corporation should not be allowed to buy BSkyB until the Competition Commission has investigated and an inquiry into the phone hacking affair has been carried out. Avaaz collected more than 40,000 names on a petition submitted to the last News Corp/BSkyB consultation. More than 60,000 names have already signed the latest one, which will be open until the consultation closes on Friday. 9.21am: Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, has just told BBC News that Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary, should delay the decision on whether to allow News Corporation to buy the whole of BSkyB. The latest consultation on the plan closes at midday on Friday, and Hunt was expected to approve the deal before the end of the month. But he should announce a pause, Rusbridger said, and challenge News International to seek a judicial review of his decision if they dare. (Hunt gave details about what stage the bid has reached in a statement to the Commons last week.) Rusbridger also said that, if David Cameron were to announce an inquiry, that would “calm a lot of nerves”, and that Press Complaints Commission needed to be reformed. 9.13am: Labour’s Tom Watson has just told BBC News that he thought the “Coulson authorised payments to the police” story running on the BBC last night and prominently in the Times today (see 9.00am) was a distraction exercise. This is desperation from News International. They are trying to protect Rebekah Brooks, who rightly faces the ire of the nation today. Watson also said that the Press Complaints Commission was “probably finished” and that the inquiry into the affair would have to be judge-led. This last point is important. It now seems inevitable that, at some point, there will be an inquiry into press standards. But there’s a huge difference between a commission meeting in private, and a judge-led inquiry with the power to subpoeana witnesses and force them to give evidence on oath in public. Listen carefully for what ministers have to say about this. They will be under pressure (not least from certain figures in the newspaper industry, I suspect) to go for the minimum option. 9.00am: The Times has got the News of the World story on its front page (paywall ) – but it’s focusing on payments to the police, not phone hacking. The News of the World gave the Metropolitan police information some time ago about payments being made to police officers at the time when Andy Coulson was editing the paper, but this information has only just become public. On the Today programme Simon Greenberg, News International’s head of corporate affairs, said the information was released because Vanity Fair were researching an article that was going to allege, wrongly, that the company had emails detailing the payments and that it hadn’t handed them over to the police. But, as Nick Robinson argued on Today, focusing on payments to the police may help the company because it focuses media attention on Coulson, and therefore David Cameron’s decision to hire him as his communications chief in Downing Street. 8.48am: Huffington Post have launched in the UK today. They’ve chosen a good day to jump in. Their phone hacking coverage includes a blog from the Guardian’s own Roy Greenslade, who says that if the advertising boycott of News of the World escalates, Rebekah Brooks will be forced to quit. As many of us have been saying for years, that hacking – which is, of course, an illegal act – took place as a matter of course at the behest of the Wapping newsroom. It was used to discover private information about anyone – actors, PR agents, secretaries, footballers, TV presenters and people caught up in murder investigations – deemed likely to provide sales-winning copy for the newspaper … Commerce was behind the hacking. Commerce will decide [Brooks's] fate. 8.32am: On the Today programme Graham Foulkes, whose son died in the 7/7 bombings, said that he would like to have a meeting with Rupert Murdoch to discuss the news that the relatives of 7/7 victims were targeted by the News of the World. “I would very much like to meet him face to face and have a very in-depth discussion with him about responsibility and the power that he has and how it should be used appropriately,” Foulkes said. As PoliticsHome reports, Foulkes said the thought that journalists were listening to the private conversations he was having at the time was “horrendous”. After the explosions in London nobody from the authorities contacted us or any of the families at all for quite some days so we were in a very dark place there, and we were using the phone and frantically trying to get information about David and where he’d been and if he was in hospital or whatever, and talking very intimately about very personal issues. The thought that these guys may have been listening to that is just horrendous … It kind of fills you with horror really because we were in a very dark place, and you think that its about as dark as it can get, and then you realise that there’s somebody out there that can make it even darker. Later on the programme Simon Greenberg, director of corporate affairs at News International, said that Foulkes’s call for a personal meeting with Murdoch was “something that we would consider”. 8.16am: The News of the World phone-hacking crisis is intensifying, and today may well turn out to be a crucial day for the paper – and perhaps even for the future of the British newspaper industry. New revelations about the behaviour of the paper are coming thick and fast. The Guardian leads on the news that relatives of victims of the 7 July 2005 attacks were targeted by the paper, the BBC says that News International has uncovered emails showing that payments were made to the police by the paper when Andy Coulson was editor , apparently with Coulson’s approval, and the Independent says that Rebekah Brooks personally commissioned a search for information by one of the investigators subsequently used to trace the family of Milly Dowler. And in the Commons today we’ve got PMQs, followed by a three-hour emergency debate on the phone hacking affair. By the end of the day we will have a much better idea as to if – or, rather, when (because it seems inevitable) – there will be an inquiry into the phone-hacking affair. It’s possible, too, that we may see Rebekah Brooks resigning – the pressure on her is enormous – but as I write this morning she seems determined to cling on. PMQs will be at 12pm and the debate should start at about 1.45pm (because we’re expecting a statement from Cameron on Afghanistan). MPs won’t actually be asked to vote to set up an inquiry. There was a suggestion last night that there could be a vote on a substantive motion calling for an inquiry, but Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who used an unusual parliamentary procedure to persuade the Speaker to allow the debate, told me this morning that a substantive motion of that kind was not allowed under the rules. Instead MPs will just debate a motion saying “that this house has considered the matter of whether there should be a public inquiry into the phone hacking at the News of the World; and the conduct of the Metropolitan Police Service between 2006 and 2011″. Members of the public are not allowed to participate in Commons debates. But the Labour MP Tom Watson will be speaking and, on Twitter , he’s inviting people to suggest ideas for his speech. Do get in touch with him if you want to have your say. Today I will be focusing almost exclusively on phone hacking and PMQs. Other political stories will probably only get a brief mention. News of the World Phone hacking PMQs Newspapers Privacy & the media Rebekah Brooks News International News Corporation House of Commons David Cameron Ed Miliband Andrew Sparrow guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 6, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.