Calls for new phone hacking investigation
Updated on 03 September 2010
The former home secretary Alan Johnson says there may be a case for a new inquiry into phone-hacking by journalists at the News of the World, amid claims that Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson was aware the illegal practice was going on while he was the newpaper's editor.
Mr Johnson said he would be reviewing papers on the original Metropolitan police investigation from his time as Home Secretary, and believed there "may now be a case" for an investigation by the HM Inspector of Constabulary.
This week, the New York Times raised a series of new allegations about the interception of private voice mail messages of high profile figures by reporters at the newspaper.
The Metropolitan Police said last year it would not launch an investigation into the claims.
But the New York Times report quoted unnamed investigators claiming the force was relunctant to conduct a wider inquiry because of its alleged close relationship with the News of The World.
Senior Labour politicians joined the calls for a fresh investigation into the claims of phone-hacking by the paper.
Lord Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, said he was considering taking legal action to force detectives to inform him if his phone had been hacked into.
"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 told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"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."
The former royal correspondent of the News of the World, Clive Goodman was jailed in 2007 along with a private investigator for the practice.
Mr Coulson resigned as editor saying he took responsibility for the incident while insisting he was not aware of what the journalist had done and never sanctioned his activities.
He later told a committee of MPs he had never "used or condoned" phone tapping and was deceived by Mr Goodman.
However the New York Times report quoted a sacked News of the World reporter Sean Hoare claiming that Mr Coulson had "actively encouraged me to do it".
The News of the World denied the new allegations.
In a statement, the paper said; "A team of New York Times journalists, employing at least one private investigator, spent five months investigating the News of the World.
"They focused mainly on events that occurred in 2006 which, in co-operation with the News of the World, resulted in two criminal convictions.
"The New York Times story contains no new evidence - it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper.
"We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrong-doing at the News of the World."
Downing Street said Mr Coulson "totally and utterly" denied the claims.
