PM says Murdoch has ‘questions to answer’ over hacking

The Metropolitan Police have said they have received and are considering a letter from the Labour MP, Tom Watson. The MP said earlier that he would contact Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, who is leading the phone-hacking investigation, over a claim that Mr Murdoch gave misleading evidence to the Culture Select Committee on Tuesday.

The claim about Mr Murdoch‘s evidence came in a statement from the former editor of the News of the World, Colin Myler, and News International’s ex-legal chief Tom Crone.

The pair contradicted part of Mr Murdoch’s testimony on Tuesday to the committee and suggested he was aware of further details of the phone-hacking allegations.

Mr Watson told the BBC: “I think this is the most significant moment of two years of investigation. If [Colin Myler and Tom Crone’s] statement is accurate it shows James Murdoch had knowledge that others were involved in hacking as early as 2008.”

Clearly James Murdoch has got questions to answer in Parliament. David Cameron

Speaking during a visit to the West Midlands, the Prime Minister said: “Well, clearly James Murdoch has got questions to answer in Parliament and I’m sure that he will do that. And clearly News International has got some big issues to deal with and a mess to clear up.”

Mr Cameron added: “That has to be done by the management of that company. In the end, the management of a company must be an issue for the shareholders of that company, but the Government wants to see this sorted out.”

The Chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, John Whittingdale, said Mr Murdoch may be asked to clarify his evidence to MPs.

The statement from Mr Myler and Mr Crone, referring to the out-of-court settlement agreed with the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Gordon Taylor, said: “James Murdoch’s recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken. In fact we did inform him of the ‘for Neville’ e-mail which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor’s lawyers.”

Read more on phone hacking: the directory of inquiries

The reference to “Neville” in the e-mail is believed to refer to the News of the World’s former chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, who was arrested in April on suspicion of illegally accessing e-mails. He was later released on bail.

In 2009, the committee was given copies of documents referring to an e-mail sent four years earlier to the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire by a junior reporter on the paper. The e-mail referred to a transcript of hacked telephone messages between Gordon Taylor and a colleague at the PFA and the reporter wrote: “Hello, this is the transcript for Neville”.

‘I stand by my statement’

But in a statement, Mr Murdoch said: “I stand by my statement to the select committee.”

Mr Whittingdale said Mr Murdoch had already agreed to write to the committee on various points that he had not been able to fully address at the hearing.

He added: “I’m sure if the statement suggests there’s conflict between what Colin Myler is saying and what he said, we will ask him to answer that as well.”

But he said the committee is unlikely to be recalled over the matter.

In other developments, News International confirmed that a member of staff at the Sun newspaper – Matt Nixson – was sacked on Thursday in relation to his previous work at the News of the World.

The Guardian newspaper has reported that Mr Coulson was undergoing vetting for a higher level of security clearance when he quit Number Ten in January.

The newspaper quotes a source saying that it had been decided to give him a lower clearance level, partly due to controversy surrounding Alastair Campbell’s access to intelligence material during Tony Blair’s occupancy of Downing Street.

But the policy was reviewed following the discovery of an explosive device on a plane at East Midlands airport, as it was felt that Coulson may need higher security clearance to deal with other terrorist-related incidences in future.