By Simon Walters

Last updated at 3:41 PM on 17th July 2011


Furious: Gordon Brown in the House of Commons during a debate about the phone hacking scandal

Furious: Gordon Brown in the House of Commons during a debate about the phone hacking scandal

Gordon Brown last night called in police after accusing News International of 'distorting' his claim that his phone was hacked.

The move came days after allegations that The Sunday Times and The Sun accessed his bank accounts, legal file, private details and medical records of his son Fraser, who has cystic fibrosis.

Mr Brown took the unprecedented step yesterday of releasing a confidential email sent to him by The Sunday Times.

He said: 'An email from The Sunday Times seeks, among other things, to manufacture claims which were never made and to distort those that were. The letter is being referred to the police.

'Unsurprisingly much of the letter attempts to diminish the culpability of News International for their methods of acquiring information.

'They have yet to reveal all the names of those who provided the information for The Sunday Times stories and how it was acquired; and who was paid and how much?'

Last week he said the paper had 'links with elements of the criminal underworld'.

He said a 'blagger' working for the paper apparently posed as him six times to obtain details from an Abbey National account. 

The bank discovered that in January 2000 someone pretended six times to be the then Chancellor.

The person rang the Bradford call centre and got details from his account.

At the same time, The Sunday Times apparently used Barry Beardall, who was later jailed for fraud, to trick solicitors into giving out information from his files.

Scandal-hit: News Corporation Chief Rupert Murdoch reads a copy of the Times. Mr Brown has referred an email from the paper to the police

Scandal-hit: News Corporation Chief Rupert Murdoch reads a copy of the Times. Mr Brown has referred an email from the paper to the police

Mr Brown has told police he feared his phone might have been hacked while he was Chancellor.

In its email to Mr Brown, The Sunday Times accused him of falsely suggesting they accessed his medical and tax records, and challenged his claims that they were involved in 'blagging' against him.

The Sunday Times email to Mr Brown said: 'Where is your evidence for your charge that The Sunday Times paid "known criminals" to work against "completely defenceless people"?

'As for the (Abbey National) "bank accounts", there is no evidence that we obtained "information from the building society".'

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have been moderated in advance.

The more this scandal engages the big wigs in Westminster, the more I think they are trying to cover up something. Let's be honest, what is more important to the future of Britain, Murdoch, or social tragedies such as mass immigration and the EU? No noise made in Westminster about the latter. Why is that?

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I hope the police start digging soon, and find 'probable cause' to look right into all of Brown's affairs. Murdoch may be a pipsqueak, a peddler of tat and smut through his media 'empire' (that would stall pretty quickly if we all stopped buying his 'products'),and ignorable because of it - but Brown is a traitor and a felon, and needs to be made to account for what he did to this country during his 13 years of office. If that malfeasance extends backwards to the sleazy governments of the '50s, '60s and '70s, then we need to know all about that, too, and the sooner the better. Let's see some proper investigative journalism now - not the 'token' NotW kind, where the odd 'straight' story legitimised the rest of that 'newspaper's' content - but the real thing, that drags skeletons out of cupboards. Let's see some justice - and some payback.

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Why is this man still being paid as an MP when he only turns up twice in 14 months and the second occasion was for his own personal ends.

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Will they also investigate his bankrupting of an entire nation? Nah thought not

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It's amazing how bullies always try to blame others for their crimes.

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Some words from that old fifties song sum up Brown - 'I've nothing to do And nowhere to go Why won't you listen To my tale of woe..? Nobdy cares if l live or die Nobody listens If l laugh or l cry...'

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