Phone hacking: Sir Paul Stephenson has 'serious questions to answer', says ... - Telegraph.co.uk

Mr Clegg's lukewarm support echoed earlier comments by Home Secretary Theresa May and Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.

Today, Sir Paul was facing questions over a five-week stay he enjoyed at Champneys in Tring, Hertfordshire, while recovering from a broken leg in January this year. The fracture to his thigh was sustained following surgery to remove a pre-cancerous tumour from his leg.

Champneys was being promoted by Outside Organisation, a PR company that employs Mr Wallis. Outside had picked up the contract to manage Champneys in November last year, two months before Sir Paul's stay.

The stay will have saved him thousands of pounds.

The Sunday Telegraph revealed Sir Paul was offered hospitality by News International on 15 occasions between April 2007 and March 2010 – accepting 14 of the invitations.

A Met spokesman denied any suggestion of impropriety, saying it was pure coincidence that Mr Wallis's company represented Champneys.

The spokesman said: "Sir Paul was invited for intensive physiotherapy and the Met paid for the medical part and Champneys hosted him. As a result he got back to work six weeks earlier.

"He stayed there from Monday to Friday for about five weeks. Mr Wallis had absolutely nothing to do with it although we now discover he is a PR adviser. The Wallis link is a total red herring."

Mr Wallis was paid £24,000 by the Met to work as a two-day-a-month PR.

His contract was cancelled less than six months before the launch of the Operation Weeting investigation into phone hacking.