Tory leader backs ex-editor over alleged phone-tapping

CONSERVATIVE leader David Cameron yesterday criticised journalists guilty of “unacceptable practices” but continued to back the former British tabloid newspaper editor who heads his media relations team.

Cameron — in an apparent reference to press reports of alleged phone-tapping by private investigators working for journalists employed by the group which owns the News of the World — said newspapers do “wrong things”. But he said he stood by his view that there was no need for Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor who is the Tory leader’s director of communications, to resign.

“There is no doubt that some [newspapers] do wrong things,” said Cameron, while answering questions from pensioners in Norwich.

“We are reading about some of that in the papers today. Unacceptable practices like that are completely unacceptable and should stop.”

Earlier this week The Guardian said News Group Newspapers, which publishes titles including the News of the World, paid out more than £1 million (€1.16m) to settle cases that threatened to reveal evidence of journalists’ alleged involvement in telephone hacking.

The Guardian quoted sources saying police officers found evidence of News Group staff using private investigators who had hacked into “thousands” of mobile phones.

MPs from all three parties and cabinet ministers including former deputy prime minister John Prescott and former culture secretary Tessa Jowell were among the targets, the newspaper said.

The Guardian said Coulson was deputy editor and then editor of the News of the World when journalists were using the private investigators.

Coulson resigned from the News of the World after royal editor Clive Goodman was sentenced to four months in prison in January 2007 for plotting to hack into telephone messages belonging to royal aides. Earlier this week Cameron said Coulson’s work with the Conservatives had been “beyond reproach” and there was no need for him to leave.

Yesterday Cameron said that his views had not changed and he had nothing to add.

Cameron was speaking to residents at a care home in Norwich while campaigning in the run-up to the Norwich North by-election on July 23.

He was asked whether newspapers had too much power to “buy and steal things”.

The Conservative leader told how a “tabloid journalist” had once “gone through” his dustbins and added: “That’s not nice.”

Earlier this week, Prescott said of Coulson’s current role: “I hope Mr Cameron will clear him out.”

And yesterday another senior Labour politician joined the attack.

Former home secretary Charles Clarke, MP for Norwich South, handed Cameron a letter calling on Coulson to “answer questions”.

“The News of the World’s practices described in the Guardian... corrupt public life, are most certainly a breach of journalistic ethics and may well be a breach of the Regulation of Investigative Practices Act — which I took through Parliament — which was designed to prevent abuse of this type,” said Clarke’s letter.

“The Guardian’s allegations about the culture of the News of the World under the editorship of Andy Coulson have subsequently been confirmed by former News of the World journalists and others.”