Phone-hacking row spreads, may singe Cameron - Times of India

LONDON: British parliamentarians on Monday began gathering data to probe into hacking of former PM Gordon Brown's phone.

The hacking allegations could destabilise prime minister David Cameron's Conservative Party-led coalition government if it's established that tabloid The News of the World hacked the phone while his former media adviser Andy Coulson was its editor. Coulson resigned on Friday.

Scotland Yard is reported to have asked for a clarification, while the government's lawyers will soon meet senior police officers to discuss the evidence in the case. Phone hacking is a criminal offence under British law. There are no indications that Cameron was involved, but he is being accused of poor judgment in hiring Coulson.

"It seemed clear that the number of people being hacked clearly was not consistent with it being one rogue reporter," energy minister and coalition partner Liberal Democrats member Chris Huhne told a TV channel. "We know police were not keen on the subject."

A comment in the Guardian newspaper went further. "There have been dark mutterings of police collusion and apathy." It said Scotland Yard officers will now be questioned in the case. During Coulson's tenure at the News of the World, the paper hacked into phones of members of the British royal household. In January 2007, the editor entrusted to cover the royal family at the publication, Clive Goodman, and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaise, were found guilty for hacking and imprisoned.

Coulson resigned but claimed he had no knowledge about the illegalities and blamed the hacking on a rogue reporter. Within three months, he was appointed Cameron's communications director.

"The deafening silence from political leaders reveals the grip (Rupert) Murdoch's empire has over the establishment," the Guardian said. The Guardian named Cameron, deputy PM Nick Clegg, finance minister George Osborne and Labour party leader Ed Miliband, as "schmoozing with Murdoch at summer parties".