The Metropolitan Police yesterday were investigating why the police had not told high-profile figures that their mobile phones were being hacked into, and why there were no prosecutions of those involved.
This followed allegations that the News of the World paid private investigators to hack into thousands of politicians’ and celebrities’ mobile phones.
It is alleged that details about how widespread the operation was were suppressed by the police and the High Court.
Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson ordered Met Assistant Commissioner John Yates to ‘establish the facts’.
Shortly afterwards, Home Office Minister David Hanson told MPs ‘serious allegations’ had been made and that Home Secretary Alan Johnson had spoken to Stephenson.
Hanson added: ‘They deserve an examination. The Metropolitan Police this afternoon will be examining those allegations. I will report back to the House in due course.’
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott said earlier: ‘I am writing to the Chief of the Police to ask him at the Met Authority, “Did you know that many of our phones were being tapped? Did you tell the Public Prosecutor? Did the prosecutor then say no further action?”.
‘I cannot believe that such legal authorities, on such serious charges, if these allegations are right, did nothing.’
Prescott said the allegations ‘raised many, many questions’.
He asked: ‘First of all, those of us that had our phones tapped and the police were aware of it – why were we not told?
‘Why were they (the News of the World) not prosecuted?
‘Why was a separate deal done in the court and then put away, and not made available to us?’
MPs on the House of Commons Culture and Media Committee held an emergency meeting yesterday and decided to reopen their investigation into phone hacking.
Committee chairman John Whittingdale said former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who now works as director of communications for the Tories, was likely to be summoned to give evidence.
Whittingdale said that ‘it wasn’t just that my committee was misled, it involved a breach of the law, and it raises question as to why prosecutions didn’t take place’.
The Guardian has alleged that Prescott, London Mayor Boris Johnson, former Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and actress Gwyneth Paltrow were among ‘two or three thousand’ public figures targeted by the hacking operation.
The newspaper said publishers News Group Newspapers had paid more than £1m in out-of-court settlements to suppress cases that would have revealed evidence about the scale of phone tapping.
Prescott said News Group Newspapers executives had convinced MPs on the House of Commons Culture Committee that the case of the News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman (who was jailed two years ago for hacking into the voicemail messages of royal staff), was a ‘one-off’ example of a ‘rogue’ reporter.
Prescott said: ‘That was clearly untrue if these allegations are to be believed.’
He said both the Culture Committee and the Press Complaints Commission should reopen their inquiries.
Writing in his blog, Prescott also questioned the role of Coulson, who now works as director of communications for Tory Party leader David Cameron.
‘This really does call Cameron’s judgement into question in hiring Coulson,’ wrote Prescott.
Coulson resigned over the phone-hacking allegations in 2007 but denied having been aware of what was going on.
