News Corp ‘paid Coulson as he aided Cameron’

NEWS Corp funded the former editor of the News of the World tabloid when he worked for David Cameron in opposition, the BBC said, in new evidence of the close links between Britain’s prime minister and Rupert Murdoch.

The Labour opposition and political analysts have repeatedly questioned Cameron’s judgment in hiring Andy Coulson as his spokesman in 2007, shortly after the editor quit over the jailing of his royal reporter for phone hacking.

The decision to appoint a man so closely associated with Murdoch to such an important position was proof, they say, that he was desperate to secure the News Corp chief’s support.

Allegations that Coulson maintained financial links to the owner of the influential Sun and Times newspapers is likely to cause further damage.

The BBC said Coulson, who was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of being involved in phone hacking, received several hundred thousand pounds from News International, the British newspaper arm of News Corp, as part of a severance package that ran until the end of 2007.

A spokesman for the Conservative Party said senior party officials had not known about the severance arrangements. Downing Street declined to comment but noted that the events occurred before Cameron became prime minister.

Opposition Labour called for transparency on the issue. “David Cameron needs to say whether he knew about the payments to Andy Coulson,” said Ivan Lewis, Labour’s culture affairs spokesman.