As it happened: phone hacking debate in the House

1635 BST Tom Watson has told the Commons that police should ask James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks whether they knew of the attempted destruction of data at a storage facility in Chennai, India.

Mr Watson said: “James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks now have to accept their culpability and they will have to face the full force of the law.

“Their behaviour to the most vulnerable, their knowledge of law breaking and their failure to act, their links with the criminal underworld, their attempts to cover up law breaking and pay for people’s silence tell the world all we need to know about their character.”

1629 BST Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, says that the allegations that staff at the News of the World hacked phones and paid police were “deplorable and unacceptable”.

He gives his backing to Rebekah Brooks to continue as News International chief executive.

1614 BST A spokesman for News International confirms that the company is close to identifying the “person or persons” implicated in authorising the phone tap of Millie Dowler’s phone “and other cases”. The spokesman says that the person is not Rebekah Brooks.

1528 BST Labour former police minister David Hanson criticises the role of Lord Macdonald, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, in advising the News of the World over the phone hacking allegations.

As Ken Macdonald, the peer led the Crown Prosecution Service from 2003 to 2008 during the original phone hacking probe which led to the jailing of News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, Mr Hanson points out. There are gasps and calls of “disgusting” from the Labour benches.

Mr Hanson asks Mr Grieve, the Attorney General, to look into Lord Macdonald’s role as soon as the debate ends. There are murmurs of disapproval as Mr Grieve replies that as far as he knows Lord Macdonald is only advising the newspaper on the disclosure process. “That is a matter for Lord Macdonald in accordance with the professional code of conduct at Bar.”

1521 BST Tom Watson, one of the MPs who has taken the lead on pursuing the phone hacking allegations, calls on James Murdoch to step down as executive chairman of News International, accusing him of authorising a cover up.

“ It is clear now that he personally and without board approval authorised money to be paid by his company to silence people who have been hacked and to cover up criminal behaviour within his organisation. This is nothing short of an attempt to pervert the course of justice,” Mr Watson tells the Commons.

There is silence in the Commons as Mr Watson alleges that Rebekah Brooks was present at a meeting with Scotland Yard in 2002 when Alex Marunchak, a News of the World executive, was accused of smearing a police officer David Cook and his wife Jackie and derailing a murder inquiry. Marunchak was not disciplined but promoted, Mr Watson claims. He says that News International had “entered the criminal underworld”, making payments on behalf of known criminals,..

He adds: “In the world of Rebekah Brooks no-one can cry in private, no one can weep without surveillance.”

1506 BST Colin Myler, the editor of the News of the World, called his heads of department into his office mid morning today for an emotional discussion about the phone hacking allegations, it is being reported.

Mr Myler told his staff that if the allegations were proved they amounted to “the most devastating breach of journalistic ethics imaginable”, according to Sky News. He distanced himself and his employees from what he described as “past allegations, that took place under a different regime” before they had joined the newspaper. But he warned that such considerations would not register with an angry public.

“There is an extremely painful period ahead as we try to... atone for the wrongs of our predecessors,” he reportedly said. “The shocking allegations about the News of the World do not describe the same newspaper that we see today.”

1449 BST News Corporation shares have opened 2.4 per cent down on the New York stock exchange. Shares in BSkyB have also fallen today in British markets.

1446 BST Ms Cooper says that Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson told her today that a public inquiry was not only inevitable but the right thing to do, and that police must be held to account. She adds that the current Met Police investigation into its own failings is to be allowed to continue, but it will be kept under scrutiny by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

1445 BST Lib Dem MP Greg Mulholland says that the current system of press self-regulation has clearly completely failed.

1443 BST Butlins is withdrawing its advertising from the News of the World, and at the start of high summer too. “We review all our sources of advertising regularly and we will not be advertising in NoW this weekend,” the company announces.

1438 BST Targeting victims and their families in their darkest hour is shameful, sickening and crude, says Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary. “The public wants to know the truth of what happened. We have seen some vigour, rigour, in the investigation in recent months, but we must look into the heart of the darkness.

1434 BST Ofcom, the media regulator, says it is paying close attention to the hacking allegations at the News of the World, as it has a duty to assess whether proprietors are “fit and proper” to hold a broadcasting licence. News Corporation is currently seeking to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not already own.

“In the light of the current public debate about phone hacking and other allegations, Ofcom confirms that it has a duty to be satisfied on an ongoing basis that the holder of a broadcasting licence is ’fit and proper’,” Ofcom said in a statement.

“It is clearly not for Ofcom to investigate matters which properly lie in the hands of the police and the courts, however we are closely monitoring the situation and in particular the investigations by the relevant authorities into the alleged unlawful activities.”

1428 BST Mitsubishi is also withdrawing its advertising from the News of the World this week.

1419 BST Frank Dobson says that if News International was to apply to run a London cab firm it would judged unfit to be given a licence, and says that it is also unfit to be allowed to run a major broadcaster. Helen Jones chips in, saying that the BSkyB takeover should be halted while the hacking allegations are investigated.

1418 BST Keith Vaz wants to know if the Home Secretary has discussed the allegations of police payments with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and asks if everyone is absolutely clear that payments to police officers are a criminal offence. Mr Grieve says that everyone is indeed clear.

1413 BST News International welcomes Mr Cameron’s promise of a wide-ranging public inquiry into standards in the media to address concerns about the phone-hacking scandal.

1408 BST Labour backbencher Hazel Blears says that it is wrong to have News International investigating News International, and the Metropolitan Police investigating the Metropolitan Police.

1405 BST Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, praises Mr Bryant for bringing the debate but warns that he is circumscribed by what he can say in reply because of the criminal investigation.

“It’s precisely because of the gravity of these allegations that the Prime MInister announced a short while ago a fully independent public inquiry, or inquiries,” says Mr Grieve. “But the burning desire of some people to see truth may take some time.”

Preparatory work can be done, even while the criminal investigation is ongoing, in setting up the terms of the public inquiry or inquiries, Mr Grieve concedes.

1403 BST “Did the Prime Minister ever ask Andy Coulson what he did at the News of the World when he appointed him to work on the taxpayer’s payroll at Downing Street?” Mr Bryant asks, listing a string of unanswered questions.

1400 BST Mr Bryant says that the Commons has been systematically lied to. News International claimed that the first phone hacking was in 2004, he says, but there are now instances emerging from 2003 and 2002. It also claimed it had carried out a full internal investigation, but clearly hadn’t.

The police had also misled the Commons, saying that they had carried out a full investigation when they hadn’t, adds Mr Bryant.

Keith Vaz, the chairman of the Home Affairs select committee, said that his committee had been hampered by having no power to compel a witness to attend, and that a public inquiry would be a better forum.

1357 BST Sir Menzies Campbell warns that if witnesses were giving evidence to a public inquiry under oath they would have to be represented by a lawyer and could refuse to answer anything that might incriminate them, unless the criminal investigations had been concluded.

1356 BST Dominic Grieve, the Attorney General, agrees that it is possible to set up an inquiry straight away, but warns that it could not take any evidence until the criminal investigation was over. Mr Bryant welcomes this as a “big concession”.

1353 BST Mr Bryant says that it’s vital there is a public inquiry in parallel with the police investigation, as some of the issues that are raised may not be criminal ones but do need acting on. He urges that the inquiry is set up as soon as practicable, under a judge with the power to take evidence under oath, in case memories fade or evidence is shredded.

He expresses his horror at the revelation that tens of thousands of pounds were reportedly paid to police officers. “There is no legitimate payment to a police officer. It is corruption,” he says, to a rumble of “hear, hear”.

1349 BST Renault, Aldi and TalkTalk have also said that they are withdrawing advertising from the News of the World.

1345 BST Mr Bryant says that the News of the World is far from the only newspaper that behaved wrongly. He refers to the Information Commissioner’s 2006 investigation, What Price Privacy Now, which cites the evidence uncovered by Operation Motorman into journalists’ use of private investigators to illegally obtain confidential personal details.

Mr Bryant says that according to the report the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday were the worst offenders with 91 journalists jointly responsible for 1,218 instances. Second came the Sunday People with 802, and third the Mirror with 681. The News of the World came next with 182 instances, involving 19 journalists.

Leading Tory backbencher Nicholas Soames leaps up to praise the information commissioner’s “excellent” report and says it was a disgrace that the (Labour) government of the day failed to act on it.

1342 BST Labour MP Chris Bryant opens the Commons emergency debate on phone hacking by revealing that police officers’ phones involved in major murder inquiries - and police officers investigating the News of the World’s hacking activities - were also allegedly hacked by the newspaper.

He says the behaviour was immoral and almost certainly criminal, and that the newspaper was “appallingly led”

“It’s simply no excuse to know they didn’t know what was going on. Management negligence is tantamount to complicity,” he says, calling on Rebekah Brooks to consider her position.

“I know that the News of the World seems to be hanging Andy Coulson out to dry on this but the buck stops at the top, and that is the chief executive,” Mr Bryant tells MPs. “If she has a shred of decency she will resign.”

1241 BST On Times Law, criminal law expert Stephen Parkinson says that anyone found guilty of authorising or carrying out illegal phone hacking faces a possible maximum of two years in prison under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, and could even face action for perverting the course of justice. Read more here.

1230 BST “I’m afraid [the Prime Minister] hasn’t shown the leadership necessary today on BSkyB and News International. Isn’t it the case that if the public is to have confidence in him he must accept that he made a catastrophic error of judgment by bringing Andy Coulson [former News of the World editor] into the heart of his Downing Street machine?” says Mr Miliband, pressing his attack in what has been one of his most effective performances at the Dispatch Box.

Mr Cameron does not respond directly to this, blustering how appalled he is that the families of murder and terror victims have been phonetapped and how vital it is that the police investigation runs its course and a public inquiry into media ethics is held in due course.

Mr Coulson resigned as News of the World editor when the phone-hacking scandal led to the conviction of Mulcaire and the newspaper’s royal editor, Clive Goodman. Mr Coulson then quit as Number 10 media chief in January this year as the phone-hacking scandal refused to die down.

1222 BST Mr Miliband presses Mr Cameron to agree that his friend Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International and former editor of the News of the World, should take responsibility for the hacking of Millie Dowler’s phone, which happened “on her watch”.

Mr Cameron doesn’t take the bait, replying that everyone at News International should be taking responsibility for what has happened, and that the police investigation must be allowed to take its course.

1220 BST Vauxhall says it is withdrawing its advertising from this weekend’s News of the World. Ford, Halifax bank, Virgin Holidays and the Co-Op have already made similar announcements.

1217 BST Mr Miliband says that News Corporation’s bid to take control of 100 per cent of the shares in BSkyB must now be referred to the Competition Commission, as is normal in such cases.

Mr Cameron demurs, saying that the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt who decided not to refer the bid was following due process, and exercising a quasi-judicial role.

“I’m afraid that answer is out of touch with the opinions of millions of people in this country,” retorts Mr Miliband, to roars of approval from the Labour benches. “People will not accept that with this scandal engulfing the News of the World and News International, that the government should be making a decision outside the normal process allowing them to take full control of one of the largest media organisations in the country.”

Mr Cameron observes that yesterday Mr Miliband himself was saying that there was no need to reconsider the BSkyB bid, and that “in just 24 hours he has done a U-turn to try to look good in the Commons”. Mr Miliband says he doesn’t want to talk about technicalities, which raises a few laughs.

Pressed later by Labour MP Ben Bradshaw on the BSkyB takeover, Mr Cameron says: “The point is that we have followed the correct legal processes, and if we don’t we will be judicially reviewed and the decisions we make will be struck down in the courts. We will look pretty for a day but useless for a week.”

1211 BST Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, tells MPs at Prime MInister’s Questions that the inquiries should start work straight away, with a judge appointed to start gathering information, even though the police’s criminal investigation is still ongoing. “Just because we can’t do everything doesn’t mean that we can’t do anything,” says Mr Miliband.

Mr Cameron retorts that this approach hasn’t worked well in the case of the Gibson inquiry into the treatment of terror detainees by Britain’s security forces, as the inquiry’s work has been held back by needing to be respectful of the police investigation. “All too often some of these inquiries can be set up too quickly,” he warns.

1207 BST David Cameron says that he supports a public inquiry into phone hacking - and says that there also needs to be a second investigation, into the failure of the police to uncover what happened in their first, abortive investigation.

“I do think it’s important that we have inquiries, inquiries that are public, inquiries that are independent and inquiries that have public confidence,” says the Prime Minister.

“It seems to me there are two vital issues we need to look into. The first is the original police inquiry and why that didn’t get to the bottom of what has happened. The second is about the behaviour of individual people and individual media organisations and ... a wider look into media practices and ethics in this country.

“Clearly ... we cannot start all that sort of inquiry immediately because you must not jeopardise the police investigation. But it may be possible to start some of that work earlier.” He adds that he does not think it would be possible to investigate the original police inquiry until the new one had concluded.

Mr Cameron said he would discuss the issue with Mr Miliband and other party leaders, along with Attorney General Dominic Grieve and the Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell, the head of the civil service.

He said he was appalled by the allegations. “We are no longer talking here about politicians and celebrities, we are talking about murder victims, potentially terrorist victims, having their phones hacked into.

“It is absolutely disgusting, what has taken place, and I think everyone in this House and indeed this country will be revolted by what they have heard and what they have seen on their television screens.”

1201 BST The Prime Minister’s spokesman says that David Cameron stands by the warm words he used to describe Andy Coulson in January, Times political correspondent Anushka Asthana writes. The Prime Minister said that Mr Coulson, who was resigning as his director of communications, had been a “brilliant member” of the team and could be “proud of the role he has played”.

Despite revelations that Mr Coulson was editor of the News of the World when the newspaper paid police for information, she insisted the Prime Minister’s position had not changed. The spokeswoman read out the statement once again.

Mr Cameron said: “I am very sorry that Andy Coulson has decided to resign as my Director of Communications, although I understand that the continuing pressures on him and his family mean that he feels compelled to do so. Andy has told me that the focus on him was impeding his ability to do his job and was starting to prove a distraction for the Government.

“During his time working for me, Andy has carried out his role with complete professionalism. He has been a brilliant member of my team and has thrown himself at the job with skill and dedication. He can be extremely proud of the role he has played, including for the last eight months in Government.”

1158 BST The Metropolitan Police has announced an investigation into the alleged payments to police officers from News of the World journalists. Here’s the 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 was handed a number of documents by News International, through their barrister, 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.”

1137 BST News International says it is “very close” to discovering which News of the World executive commissioned Glenn Mulcaire to illegally access the voice messages of murdered school girl Milly Dowler after she went missing in 2002.

Simon Greenberg, the company’s director of corporate affairs, told BBC Radio 5 Live: “We are very close to, we believe, identifying an individual or individuals who potentially commissioned this act.”

He refused to say whether those involved still work for the News of the World or News International. But asked whether he was clear that the hacking was not commissioned by News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who was News of the World editor at the time, Mr Greenberg said: “We are clear.”

1136 BST Lloyds HBOS bank says that it is withdrawing its advertising for its Halifax brand from this Sunday’s edition of the News of the World.

The Twitter microblogging site is being used to co-ordinate a public campaign to persuade big companies to withdraw their advertising. According to a survey carried out by The Times Online, between 12.30pm and 4pm yesterday more than 10,000 tweets were fired off by angry members of the public, including 2,000 to WH Smith, 1,700 to the Co-Op, and 1,500 to Virgin Media.

1113 BST The Twittersphere is busy with the phone-hacking scandal. @louisebolotin tweets: “Amazed no one’s spotted the irony of #NotW phone hacker Mulcaire asking us to respect his family’s privacy...”

@kareneatstories ripostes that the irony has indeed been noted, with Jeremy Paxman commenting on Newsnight that it would be nauseating if it wasn’t so comical.

In a statement to the Guardian, Mulcaire said: “”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.

“A lot of information I obtained was simply tittle-tattle, of no great importance to anyone, but sometimes what I did was for what I thought was the greater good, to carry out investigative journalism.

“I never had any intention of interfering with any police inquiry into any crime.I know I have brought the vilification I am experiencing upon myself, but I do ask the media to leave my family and my children, who are all blameless, alone.”

Read more in the UK Press Gazette here.

1054 BST Paul Farrelly MP tells the BBC that there is a question mark over whether the Metropolitan Police should be left to investigate themselves, over their own failures to uncover phone hacking.

“What really disturbed us in the [Home Affairs select] committee when we were investigating was the approach and the evidence given by the police.

“They closed the inquiry down, they clearly didn’t investigate fully. And the question of the motivation behind that, whether it goes beyond normal press relations - that really is the justification for having an independent inquiry.”

1048 BST Assistant Deputy Commissioner Sue Akers, the Met Police officer in charge of Operation Weeting, plus former Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman and former Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, have been summoned to appear before MPs at the Home Affairs select committee next week.

0956 BST Prisons minister Crispin Blunt says it would be down to the Attorney General to decide whether to hold a public inquiry into alleged phone hacking once the criminal investigation is complete.

“That will be a matter for the Attorney General. He’s going to reply to that today for the Government, I think we better wait for Parliament this afternoon. The only observation I would make is that while there are criminal investigations going on, it is really quite difficult for the Government to say very much.”

0934 BST There is so far no direct evidence that reporters hacked the phones of the parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann, Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, tells Sky News.

He adds however that he believes he may have to speak to police again. The revelations are “beyond the pale” and it may make people “feel ashamed to be a journalist”, he says.

0913 BST The Press Complaints commission is under attack for failing to uncover and prevent phone hacking abuses. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger writes in his paper’s leader column today: “We warned in November 2009 that the PCC’s cursory and complacent response to the Guardian’s phone-hacking allegations would be damaging to the cause of self-regulation, and so it has proved. The credibility of the organisation is currently hanging by a thread.”

Mr Rusbridger tweets this morning that Baroness Buscombe’s position as chairman of the PCC is “barely tenable”.

0826 BST All News International’s newspapers are being damaged by the phone hacking allegations, even those like The Times that appear to have little connection with the scandal, says George Brock, professor of journalism at City University. He says that digital subscribers are cancelling their online subscriptions in protest.

0824 BST News International would “certainly consider” a meeting between Rupert Murdoch and Graham Foulkes, a bereaved father whose ex-directory home phone number was obtained by News of the World investigator Glenn Mulcaire after the London 7/7 bombings.

Company spokesman Simon Greenberg tells the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “I think that’s certainly something we would consider,” half an hour after Mr Foulkes made the request on air.

Mr Greenberg says that the company had already been in touch with Milly Dowler’s parents and their solicitor, and promised to inform them if they turned up any information relating to the murdered schoolgirl’s case. News Int would look to do the same for Mr Foulkes and other alleged hacking victims, he says.

0819 BST Any employee proved to be directly involved in commissioning or dealing with phone hacking will face serious consequences, says Simon Greenberg, News International’s director of corporate affairs. Rupert Murdoch, the owner of News International’s parent company News Corporation, has said that “wrongdoing... will not be tolerated”, and Mr Greenberg confirms that this is still the company’s line.

He denies that it “stretches credulity” that the two people at the News of the World who appear to have been unaware of the alleged use of phone hacking were the successive editors, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. Mr Greenberg says that Mulcaire’s £100,000 contract with the newspaper was to carry out legitimate work, although he also appeared to have done things that were illegal.

0750 BST An online petition for a public inquiry into the phone hacking scandal has already attracted some high profile online supporters. Former Tory Cabinet Minister Lord Fowler joins former Labour Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant, campaigning journalist John Pilger and crossbench peer and philosophy professor Baroness O’Neill of Bengarve in calling for a probe “into phone hacking and other forms of illegal intrusion by the press”.

But the government is cool on holding an inquiry, at least until the Metropolitan Police have concluded their criminal investigation, codenamed Operation Weeting, and prosecutions have gone ahead. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, have both said that police must be allowed to follow the evidence “wherever it leads” before it can all be aired in a public forum.

0741 BST Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed in the 7/7 bombings, tells BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he would like to meet Rupert Murdoch, to explain why it is irresponsible to hack the phone of a bereaved family at the moment of their most naked fear and grief.

“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. I would very much like to meet him and have that discussion,” says Mr Foulkes, who has been warned by Operation Weeting that his name, address, mobile number and ex-directory home phone number were all found at private investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s house, inside a file marked ‘July 7 bombings’.

He explains why the notion of having been overheard by newspaper reporters is so painful. “In 2005 after the explosions in London nobody from the authorities contacted us or any other family at all for quite some days. We were in a very dark place and we were using the phone frantically, trying to get information about David and where he might be and if he was in hospital, and talking to family and friends and talking very intimately. The thought that somebody might have been listening to that is just... horrendous.

“It just fills you with horror, because we were in a very dark place and you think that’s about as dark as it can get - and then you realise that there is somebody out there who can make it even darker.

“If it pans out that they were really listening, these people really need to be subject to the law.” Listen to the interview here.

0730 BST The phone hacking scandal surrounding the News of the World is set to intensify today, as MPs hold a three hour emergency debate on the issue which will inevitably hear calls for a full judicial public inquiry.

The long-running scandal deepened dramatically on Monday night, when the parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler claimed that Milly’s phone was hacked after her disappearance, by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire acting on behalf of the News of the World.

Since then it has emerged that the parents of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the relatives of some of the victims of the London 7/7 bombings, and the parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann, have all been warned by police that their phones may have been hacked.

The revelations appear to suggest a systematic policy at the News of the World of hacking the phones not just of celebrities but of ordinary members of the public embroiled in major disasters and murder cases.

David Cameron is meanwhile set to be challenged at Prime Minister’s Questions over how much he knew about his former spindoctor Andy Coulson’s alleged wrongdoing. Mr Coulson edited the News of the World between 2003 - 07 when the newspaper made payments to police for information.

The revelation threatens to widen the scope of Operation Weeting, Scotland Yard’s phone hacking inquiry, into new realms of alleged press misbehaviour. It also turns the focus on the Metropolitan Police, who were yesterday heavily criticised for failing to act earlier on the 11,000 pages of notes seized from Mulcaire’s home in 2006, and for repeatedly misleading MPs that they had no evidence of wrongdoing.