LONDON--Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday was forced to
parry accusations that he had ignored warnings before hiring
disgraced former tabloid editor Andy Coulson as his communications
chief.
In a rowdy session in Parliament, Mr. Cameron repeated his
apology for hiring Mr. Coulson, saying he had done so on the basis
of assurances he had received from the former editor and noting
that a judge-led inquiry had made no criticism of his conduct.
The opposition Labour party has accused Mr. Cameron of being so
keen to cozy up to the influential media empire of Rupert Murdoch
that he was willfully negligent in hiring Mr. Coulson.
Mr. Coulson was found guilty on Tuesday of conspiring to
intercept voice-mail messages while he worked at News Corp's
now-defunct News of the World newspaper.
"Today we know that for four years the prime minister's
hand-picked closest advisor was a criminal and brought disgrace to
Downing Street. We now also know the prime minister willfully
ignored multiple warnings about him [Mr. Coulson]," Ed Miliband,
the leader of the center-left opposition Labour Party, told
Parliament.
In response, Mr. Cameron accused Mr. Miliband of raking over old
ground that had already been covered by a public inquiry into the
culture and workings of the press led by Judge Brian Leveson, which
was triggered by the revelations of phone hacking.
"All of these issues, every single warning, was dealt with by
the Leveson inquiry.. I know he [Mr. Miliband] can't bear it, but
Leveson made no criticism of my conduct in this regard whatsoever,"
the prime minister said, adding that the opposition leader had
agreed on the terms of reference of the inquiry and should accept
its findings.
Mr. Cameron hired Mr. Coulson in 2007 while in opposition,
shortly after Mr. Coulson resigned from the top editing job at News
of the World, and then kept him on after becoming prime minister in
2010. Mr. Coulson stepped down from the paper after two people
there were found guilty of separate counts of phone hacking. At the
time he said he had no knowledge of the practice.
Mr. Coulson resigned as Mr. Cameron's head of communications in
2011 when the scandal flared up again.
Mr. Miliband noted that unlike his predecessors in the
communications job at 10 Downing St., Mr. Coulson hadn't been
vetted for the highest level of security clearance. Mr. Cameron
should have insisted on it, Mr. Miliband said.
In response, Mr. Cameron said the Leveson inquiry had also
covered that ground and concluded that security clearance was a
matter for civil service to decide, not the prime minister or Mr.
Coulson. He added that the inquiry also found that the process of
considering Mr. Coulson for high security clearance wouldn't have
involved an investigation into his conduct at the News of the
World.
"What the right honorable gentleman [Mr. Miliband] is trying to
do is go though all of the old questions that were answered by the
Leveson inquiry--he didn't like the answers because he wanted to
try and prove some cooked-up conspiracy between the Conservatives
and News International [now News UK]. He cannot manage to do it
because the Leveson inquiry can't find it," he said.
News Corp owns The Wall Street Journal.
The jury failed to reach a verdict on Wednesday on two counts
faced by Mr. Coulson and Clive Goodman, a former royals reporter at
News of the World, of conspiracy to commit misconduct, or bribery,
by paying public officials in the pursuit of stories.
Write to Nicholas Winning at nick.winning@wsj.com
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