MPs to debate News of the World hacking inquiry calls

MPs are to hear calls for a public inquiry into alleged phone hacking at the News of the World.

Commons Speaker John Bercow granted an emergency debate after it was claimed that murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone was hacked in 2002 by an investigator working for the paper.

It has since been alleged that David Cameron's former media adviser Andy Coulson authorised payments to police while he was News of the World editor.

The debate will last for three hours.

As revelations continue to emerge, families of victims of the 7 July bombings in 2005 have complained that they may have had their phones hacked by the News of the World.

Meanwhile, police investigating hacking claims against the paper have contacted the parents of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
'Truly dreadful'

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said a "mass venting of anger" was likely during the Commons debate.

Before this, David Cameron will take part in his weekly prime minister's questions session, with Labour MPs expected to focus on his relationship with Mr Coulson.

News International has passed e-mails to the police which appear to show that payments to officers were authorised by the Mr Coulson during his tenure as News of the World editor from 2003 to 2007.

BBC business editor Robert Peston said this shows the investigation into alleged illicit techniques used by the paper to obtain stories went much wider than an examination of phone hacking.

Mr Coulson resigned when the tabloid's royal editor, Clive Goodman, was jailed for conspiracy to access phone messages. Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was imprisoned for six months on the same charge.

But a Press Complaints Commission investigation in May 2007 found no evidence that Mr Coulson or anyone else at the paper had been aware of Goodman's activities and, that same month, he became Mr Cameron's director of communications.

He resigned from that post in January, saying the growing phone hacking scandal had made it hard to focus on his government role.

Mr Coulson has not commented on the latest allegations, although he has reportedly told friends he suspects he is being used to deflect attention from News International.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has said Rebekah Brooks - who was editor of the News of the World at the time Milly Dowler went missing and Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were killed, and is currently chief executive of News International - should "consider her position" and "examine her conscience".

However, Mrs Brooks has said the claims of hacking Milly's phone are "almost too horrific to believe" and pledged the "strongest possible action" if they prove to be true. She has said it is "inconceivable" that she knew about it at the time.

Mr Cameron has said that if the allegations of hacking into - and deleting - Milly's voicemail messages are true, they constitute a "truly dreadful act".

But the government has not committed to holding an independent inquiry, instead stressing that the current police investigation into events is the "absolute priority".

The Commons motion to be debated is not "substantive", meaning that, even if a vote takes place, it will not force the government to take action.


MPs to debate News of the World hacking inquiry calls