Former Cameron aide arrested in phone hacking probe

Former Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson was arrested today on suspicion of phone hacking and corruption.

The 43-year-old ex-editor of the News of the World was held at a south London police station this morning, sources said.

The arrest piles further pressure on the Prime Minister, who gave him a job at No 10 despite his association with the scandal.

The widely-anticipated arrest is the latest bombshell in a catastrophic week for News International chiefs, who announced they were shutting the Sunday tabloid because it had betrayed its readers' trust.

A Scotland Yard statement said: “The MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) has this morning arrested a member of the public in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking.

“The man, aged 43, was arrested by appointment at a south London police station. He is currently in custody.”

He was held at 10.30am by detectives investigating Operation Elveden – the inquiry into payments to police by the News of the World – and Operation Weeting, the long-running hacking investigation.

After arriving by appointment at the station, he was held on suspicion of “conspiring to intercept communications” and “corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906”.

Shockwaves from the hacking revelations and police payment allegations prompted David Cameron to promise today he would ``get to the bottom'' of the scandal.

As Mr Coulson was being held by detectives, Mr Cameron revealed how the pair had grown close and built up a friendship.

The Prime Minister said they discussed the hacking allegations while he was employed but he never had reason to doubt “the assurances he had given me and I accepted”.

Of their contact since Mr Coulson’s January resignation, he added: “I have spoken to him, I have seen him, not recently and not frequently, but when you work with someone for four years as I did, and you work closely, you do build a friendship and I became friends with him. He became a friend and is a friend.”

Mr Coulson’s detached home in Forest Hill, south London, was deserted all morning with no sign of relatives or his BMW Six series car in the driveway.

He has been dogged by allegations of phone hacking on his watch for years, forcing him to give up his positions as the News of the World editor and then as the Conservatives’ top spin doctor.