Police defend phone-tapping probe
The Metropolitan Police has defended its handling of phone-hacking allegations after former home secretary Alan Johnson suggested an independent investigation.
Mr Johnson said he was going in to the Home Office to review documents from the case and believed his Conservative successor Theresa May may have to consider calling in the Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).
Controversy surrounding alleged phone-hacking by journalists on the News of the World was revived by a report in the New York Times claiming that it was more widespread than previously admitted and that then editor Andy Coulson was aware of it - something he has strenuously denied.
Tories accused Labour of latching on to the report in the hope of embarrassing Prime Minister David Cameron, who employs Mr Coulson as his head of communications at 10 Downing Street.
A former News of the World reporter who told the NYT that he believed Mr Coulson was aware his staff were hacking into the voicemail of prominent personalities repeated his claims yesterday on the BBC Radio 4 PM show. And former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell told The Independent that police had warned her that her phone messages had been intercepted at least 28 times while she was in the government.
News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 for hacking into voicemail messages, but the newspaper has always insisted this was an isolated case.
Mr Johnson said on Friday he had been "uncomfortable" about the progress of the Met's investigation into allegations - made in The Guardian - that the phones of a further list of prominent people may have been hacked. Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott has threatened to seek a judicial review if the Met does not tell him within days whether he was one of those allegedly targeted.
In response to Mr Johnson, a Scotland Yard spokesman said: "In December 2005, the Met received complaints that mobile phones had been illegally tapped.
"Inquiries took place in 2005 and 2006 which resulted in Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire being jailed in January 2007 for conspiring to unlawfully intercept communications. This brought an end to the investigation. In July 2009, the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) examined whether any new evidence had emerged in the media or elsewhere that justified reopening the investigation.
"The clear view, subsequently endorsed by the Director of Public Prosecutions with leading counsel's advice, was that there was no new evidence and consequently the investigation remains closed. There has been no investigation since the convictions of Goodman and Mulcaire."
