Brooks quits as News International CEO

Rebekah Brooks today resigned as chief executive of News International amid growing political and commercial pressure over the phone hacking scandal.

The former Sun and News of the World editor announced she was standing down in an internal email to staff at the company, which also publishes The Times and Sunday Times.

Ms Brooks, 43, said she quit to avoid distracting attention from News International’s efforts to “fix the problems of the past”.

She became a focus for criticism of the company's journalistic practices after it emerged that the News of the World hacked into murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone while she was editor of the Sunday tabloid.

Ms Brooks wrote in her email to staff: “My desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate.

“This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past.

“Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation. While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted.”

Ms Brooks's message continued: ``At News International we pride ourselves on setting the news agenda for the right reasons. Today we are leading the news for the wrong ones.

“The reputation of the company we love so much, as well as the press freedoms we value so highly, are all at risk.

“As chief executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place.”

Her resignation comes despite Mr Murdoch describing her as his first priority when he flew into London on Sunday to take charge of the crisis engulfing his media empire.

Ms Brooks said she would now concentrate on “correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations” about her record as a journalist, an editor and executive.

She said her resignation would allow her the time to give her full co-operation to the police investigation into phone hacking and police bribes, the judge-led inquiry into the scandal, and her appearance before the Commons Culture Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday.

Ms Brooks used her farewell message to praise Rupert Murdoch’s “wisdom, kindness and incisive advice” and his son James’s “great loyalty and friendship”.

“I have worked here for 22 years and I know it to be part of the finest media company in the world,” she wrote.

“News International is full of talented, professional and honourable people. I am proud to have been part of the team and lucky to know so many brilliant journalists and media executives. I leave with the happiest of memories and an abundance of friends.”

Ms Brooks first offered her resignation to the Murdochs last week as News International took the decision to axe the News of the World, it is understood.

Prime Minister David Cameron said last week that he would have have accepted her resignation if it was up to him.

“It has been reported that she offered her resignation over this and in this situation I would have taken it,” he said.

Meanwhile, a defiant Rupert Murdoch has said he will challenge the ``total lies'' issued about his News Corporation media empire in the phone hacking scandal when he appears before MPs next week.

The 80-year-old media tycoon and his son James bowed to pressure and agreed to give evidence to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday, having previously said they were unavailable to attend.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp, Rupert Murdoch said he wanted to address “some of the things that have been said in Parliament, some of which are total lies”.

He added: “We think it’s important to absolutely establish our integrity in the eyes of the public ... I felt that it’s best just to be as transparent as possible.”

Despite the massive outcry over the allegations centring on the now defunct News of the World, Mr Murdoch insisted News Corp had handled the crisis “extremely well in every possible way”, making just “minor mistakes”.

“When I hear something going wrong, I insist on it being put right,” he said.

He said that the company would now establish an independent committee, headed by a “distinguished non-employee” to investigate all charges of improper conduct.

However the pressure intensified with the disclosure that the FBI has opened an inquiry into claims that News Corp journalists sought to hack the phones of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Congressman Peter King, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee who asked the FBI to investigate, said it was the “American dimension” of the phone hacking scandal.

“This could be a criminal matter. The FBI handles criminal investigations,” he said.

In his interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr Murdoch also hit back at Gordon Brown over claims that the News International papers, including The Sunday Times, had illegally obtained information about him and his family.

He said the former prime minister “got it entirely wrong”, adding that “the Browns were always friends of ours” until The Sun withdrew its support for Labour before the last election.

He also dismissed claims that News Corp was considering selling or separating off its newspaper assets as “pure and total rubbish”.

Meanwhile Scotland Yard was also under pressure to explain how it came to employ a former News of the World journalist arrested in the phone hacking investigation as a PR consultant.

Neil Wallis, 60, who was deputy editor under Andy Coulson’s editorship, was detained in a dawn raid on his west London home and questioned for several hours at Hammersmith police station.

While he was being held the Yard was forced to admit that it had paid him £24,000 to work as a two-day-a-month public relations consultant. His contract was cancelled less than six months before the Operation Weeting investigation into phone hacking was launched.

Home Secretary Theresa May fired off a letter to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson demanding an explanation.

Sir Paul was also summoned for what was described as a “very frank discussion” with London Mayor Boris Johnson lasting almost an hour and a half.

The commissioner will now give evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee - which is looking at the police investigation – on the same day as the Murdochs appear.