Andy Coulson « Labour Uncut

Posts Tagged ‘Andy Coulson’

Friday News Review

10/09/2010, 08:31:58 AM

More questions, few answers

The parliamentary sleaze watchdog is to investigate claims of phone hacking surrounding David Cameron’s chief spin doctor. MPs agreed yesterday that the powerful Commons Standards and Privileges Committee should hold an inquiry into the allegations. It comes amid growing pressure on Andy Coulson, No 10’s head of communications, over accusations he knew of illegal phone-tapping while he was editor of the News of the World editor. Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who claims his phone was targeted, told MPs he was concerned that recent allegations were just the “tip of the iceberg”. – The Herald

Labour former minister Tom Watson told the Commons: “Something very dark lurks in the evidence files of the Mulcaire case, and dark and mysterious forces are keeping it that way.” He claimed too many powerful politicians were “afraid” of the power of newspapers. He said: “Here we sit in Parliament, the central institution of our sacred democracy, between us some of the most powerful people of the land, and we are scared. We are afraid, and if we oppose this resolution it is our shame. That is the tawdry secret that dare not speak its name. – The Express

David Cameron’s spin doctor suffered another blow yesterday when MPs ordered the Westminster sleaze watchdog to probe phone-hacking claims. Ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson has insisted he didn’t know the eavesdropping technique was used at the paper. But former employees claim Mr Coulson – now No10 director of communications – must have been aware of the practice. – The Mirror

THE POSITION of British prime minister David Cameron’s top media adviser is under increasing pressure following a decision yesterday by the government not to block an investigation into allegations of widespread telephone tapping by British newspapers. The adviser, Andy Coulson, who resigned in 2007 as editor of theNews of the World after one of his reporters was jailed for telephone tapping, has faced fresh allegations in the last week that he approved of the widespread use of such tactics during his time in charge of the powerful tabloid. The Standards and Privileges Committee at the House of Commons is to meet early next week to decide whether it will launch a full public inquiry into the affair, but there is little doubt that it will do so given the strength of feeling expressed by MPs from all parties present at a debate on the matter yesterday, who voted unanimously for an investigation to take place. – The Irish Times

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Let’s not get carried away with the Coulson affair, says Dan Hodges

09/09/2010, 09:00:21 AM

Chris Grayling was right. There are parts of Britain that are beginning to resemble Baltimore. Illegal phone taps. Dodgy cops. Dirty pay-offs. Snitches. Political cover ups. Sheeeet! The Wire has come to Westminster.

We’ve had Tommy ‘McNulty’ Watson (a good Parliamentarian if ever there was one), fearless in his pursuit of the chief perp, ignorant of risk or reputation. Andy ‘Stringer’ Coulson, hunkering down in the safe house as five-oh circles and formerly loyal lieutenants sing. David ‘Royce’ Cameron, seeing no evil, hearing no evil, prepping his ‘game face’ as the political challenges mount.

It’s been a week to lift the spirits. The Tories on the back foot. The Lib Dems embarrassed. For the first time since the election, the Tory-Lib Dem government has lost control of the news agenda. Even the met. police may be forced to take a break from their regular Friday briefing in The Feathers and start to feel some collars. (more…)

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Thursday News Review

09/09/2010, 07:30:13 AM

What did he know?

Ex-News Of The World editor Andy Coulson’s ‘position is becoming very difficult indeed’, Mr Burnham said after the issue was raised at PMQs. ‘The question I had in my mind during prime minister’s questions, when I saw Nick Clegg answering on the issue, was that Andy Coulson could have had a hand in preparing the lines that government ministers are using,’ he said ‘If he isn’t voluntarily suspended I think the prime minister should ask him to step back from his role.’ Shadow health secretary Mr Burnham also said the NHS was facing ‘its biggest threat in its 62 years’ from a government White Paper proposing to axe health trusts. – Metro

The police are to reopen their investigation into the News of the World phone-hacking next week and plan to interview former journalists from the newspaper for the first time to discover who else was involved in hacking the voicemails of public figures. The pressure on David Cameron’s spin doctor Andy Coulson will be intensified by the fact that Scotland Yard detectives are preparing to speak with Greg Miskiw – the former head of news and so far the only senior executive at the newspaper to be conclusively linked to Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for tapping phones on behalf of the Sunday tabloid. – The Independent

A senior former News of the World journalist goes public to corroborate claims that phone hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the tabloid while the prime minister’s media adviser, Andy Coulson, was deputy editor and then editor of the paper. Paul McMullan, a former features executive and then member of the newspaper’s investigations team, says that he personally commissioned private investigators to commit several hundred acts which could be regarded as unlawful, that the use of illegal techniques was no secret at the paper and that senior editors, including Coulson, were aware that this was going on. “How can Coulson possibly say he didn’t know what was going on with the private investigators?” he said. – The Guardian

Here come the cuts

Mr Cameron can ill afford to have the man in charge of organising the Government’s message appearing on the ten o’clock news night after night, with cameramen on his doorstep. At some point, resisting such attention is no longer worthwhile. Yet all this turbulence is nothing compared with what will hit the Coalition next month when George Osborne unveils his Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) – at that point, all hell will break loose. “We are in a canoe paddling down the Zambezi, and Victoria Falls lie dead ahead. Once we’ve gone over the edge, none of this will matter,” one leading Cameroon told me. The edge, for those at Westminster who worry about it, is the moment we discover just how bad the cuts are going to be. To judge by what Cabinet ministers and officials are saying, many worry that the Coalition has not done nearly enough to warn the public of the abyss into which the country is about to plunge. “If we have had a collective failure,” one Cabinet minister says, “it is that we have underplayed the scale of the problem.” – The Telegraph

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Monday News Review

06/09/2010, 08:29:58 AM

Coulson & Cameron

Senior opposition politicians are calling on the government to respond to renewed accusations that Downing Street’s chief communications officer, Andy Coulson, encouraged reporters to illegally intercept messages from the cellphones of public figures when he was editor of The News of the World. At the same time, a number of people whose phone messages may have been intercepted by The News of the World during Mr. Coulson’s tenure are accusing the Metropolitan Police of failing to fully examine all the evidence in its criminal investigation in 2006 and 2007.- The New York Times

A senior Metropolitan Police officer said the force had asked the New York Times to provide any new material it had relating to the matter, including an interview it published with former reporter Sean Hoare. Mr Hoare has claimed David Cameron’s close aide was well aware News of the World staff were eavesdropping on private messages when he was editor of the paper. All five candidates in the Labour leadership contest also called for a fresh inquiry into unconfirmed claims reporters listened in to the voicemail messages of a long list of prominent figures, including politicians and celebrities. – Sky

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The week Uncut

05/09/2010, 05:00:12 PM

The ballot papers are out. Voting has begun and the end is in sight. In three weeks the party will have its leader and the job of opposition can begin.

The Red Menace, Bash’em, Rocky, the Mauler and the Changemaker were back on the campaign trail kissing babies and courting votes. The candidates played the numbers game with campaign polls coming out that all, unsurprisingly, said their man was the answer.

It was the week David and Ed B played nice, Andy auditioned to be Shadow Health Secretary, Diane got stood up in Camden, Ed M welcomed new members and Tony’s big week was overshadowed by the New York Times and Andy Coulson.

In case you missed them, here are Uncut’s best read pieces of the last seven days:

Tom Watson on what the New York Times says Andy Coulson knew

Tom Watson writes to the Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson

Crowdsourcing the mayor: Ken Livingstone on newts, suits and Johnson’s johnson

It’s time to offer real alternatives, says John Healey

Dan Hodges backs a Blairite for the leadership

A night down the pub with the leadership contenders

We must be in the game, not shouting outside the stadium argues John Woodcock

Gove made me ashamed to be a Conservative says senior Tory councillor as she joins Labour

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Saturday News Review

04/09/2010, 08:34:40 AM

Coulson & Cameron under pressure

Ed Miliband, the Labour leadership contender, said: “These are very serious allegations. If I was prime minister and Andy Coulson was working for me I would demand to know from Andy Coulson the truth. I don’t see how he can stay working in Downing Street unless he clears this up and says whether his former colleagues are telling the truth or not.” The News of the World said: “The New York Times story contains no new evidence – it relies on unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources or claims from disgruntled former employees that should be treated with extreme scepticism given the reasons for their departures from this newspaper. We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World.” – The Guardian

Alan Johnson said he had felt “uncomfortable” about the investigation into the News of the World by the Metropolitan Police while serving as Gordon Brown’s home secretary. It has been alleged that the Met deliberately chose not to inform MPs, celebrities and public figures, including senior police officers, that their phones may have been hacked. Mr Johnson said the case could now be taken up by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, which oversees the work of the police. “There may now be a case for the Home Secretary to ask the HMIC to investigate,” he said, adding he would use ex-ministers’ privileges to inspect the files. – The Telegraph

Hackers illegally tapped a mobile phone belonging to Tessa Jowell at least 28 times while she was a serving cabinet minister, it emerged last night. Until now, Ms Jowell, the former Culture Secretary, has not spoken publicly about the phone-tapping scandal. The scale of the hacking of a serving Cabinet minister’s telephone was uncovered by detectives who had been looking into the tapping of Prince Harry’s mobile phone. – The Independent

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Tom Watson’s letter to Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson

03/09/2010, 02:20:04 PM

Sir Paul Stephenson

Commissioner

Metropolitan Police Service

New Scotland Yard

Broadway

London

SW1H 0BG

03 September 2010

Dear Mr Stephenson,

I write as a Member of Parliament, a former cabinet office minister and a member of the culture, media and sport select committee which took evidence last year from Andy Coulson and Les Hinton about the News of the World’s illegal phone hacking operations.

The Metropolitan Police’s historic and continued mishandling of this affair is bringing your force, and hence our democracy, into disrepute.

Former assistant commissioner Brian Paddick has requested a judicial review of the Metropolitan Police’s investigation (or lack of it – we do not know) into his phone being hacked by newspapers while he was a serving officer. This is extraordinary.

Indeed, it would appear that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) may have deliberately withheld from this serving senior officer the information that his phone had been hacked. Please confirm whether this is true.

The phone of a serving Metropolitan Police commissioner was also on a list of numbers intended to be hacked by newspapers. It has been reported that an MPS investigation established that his phone had not been hacked. Please confirm whether this is true.

If it is, please confirm whether the phone of every other name on any list found of numbers intended to be hacked was also investigated.

If not, please confirm who decided, according to what criteria and on what authority which names to investigate and which to ignore.

Today it has emerged that another senior MPS officer, Michael Fuller, was also on Glen Mulcaire’s list. Please confirm how many MPS officers were on lists of names to be illegally hacked, which were investigated and which were notified.

Much anger and concern centres on your force’s failure to inform people that their names had been found on these lists. Please confirm exactly how many names were on Mulcaire’s and any other lists.

Many Members of Parliament were on these lists. The Metropolitan Police has strongly implied that all Members of Parliament so targeted had been informed. This was not true. Please confirm how many Members of Parliament were on the lists.

Please confirm who decided which Members of Parliament to notify, according to what criteria and on what authority.

Please confirm, in all other cases, who selected which victims should be notified, on what criteria, on what authority and who else had any requisite knowledge?

Please confirm who went to seize the materials, where are these materials stored, and what processes do the Met go through when answering letters and enquiries about these materials?

The New York Times allege key evidence was withheld from the Crown Prosecutions Service. Please confirm that all evidence was provided to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Your conduct of this matter is being scrutinised all over the world. So far, it is bringing shame – as has News International – on our country.

I await your early response.

Yours sincerely

Tom Watson

Member of Parliament for West Bromwich East

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Tom Watson on what the New York Times says Andy Coulson knew

02/09/2010, 05:48:51 PM

A fresh investigation by the New York Times has produced evidence about the News International phone hacking scandal which contradicts that given to the culture, media and sport select committee, of which I am a member, last summer.

Andy Coulson – the former editor of the News of the World who is now David Cameron’s director of communications at 10 Downing Street – told the Parliamentary enquiry that he had no knowledge of phone hacking, which was limited to rogue reporters.

Les Hinton, the former chief executive of News International who now runs Dow Jones, assured Parliament that Coulson was telling the truth; and that he himself knew equally little.

The New York Times found otherwise. “The litigation (between victims of phone hacking and News International) again is beginning to expose just how far the hacking went, something that Scotland Yard did not do. In fact, an examination based on police records, court documents and interviews with investigators and reporters shows that Britain’s revered police agency failed to pursue leads suggesting that one of the country’s most powerful newspapers was routinely listening in on its citizens.” (more…)