Spotlight shifts to Cameron and Yates of the Yard after bitter parting shot from Met Police chief over hacking scandal



Metropolitan Police Commissioner resigns over links to Neil Wallis

Admitted ties to journalist could hamper police inquiry into hacking

Boris Johnson was 'very hacked off' over Stephenson's links with Wallis

Emerges Sir Paul Stephenson received £12,000 luxury spa stay for free



Sir Paul insists his integrity is still intact but admits not telling him about hiring Wallis to avoid 'compromising' him

Labour's Ed Miliband called for parliament to sit on Wednesday



Downing Street says decision comes as a surprise



David Cameron was today facing renewed pressure over the phone-hacking scandal as the spotlight shifts onto him following the sensational resignation of Britain's top policeman.

The Prime Minister, who has cut short a four-day trade trip to South Africa , and Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates are both now in the firing line.

Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson fell on his sword last night over links with former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis, who was arrested last week, as well as concerns that he accepted free hospitality at a luxury health spa.

In his resignation letter he took a parting shot at Mr Cameron over the employment of former editor Andy Coulson while this morning London Mayor Boris Johnson said Mr Yates was likely to be discussed at a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority today.

He admitted his links to the journalist could hamper Operation Weeting, Scotland Yard’s investigation into phone-hacking, now the largest police inquiry in the country.

Scroll down for Sir Paul's statement in full and a video report

Driven away: Sir Paul left Scotland Yard in a black Range Rover after refusing to answer questions from the media

But making the bombshell announcement, Sir Paul suggested his decision to employ Mr Wallis as an adviser was less controversial than the Prime Minister’s hiring Mr Coulson as his media chief.

‘Unlike Mr Coulson, Mr Wallis had not resigned from News of the World or, to the best of my knowledge, been in any way associated with the original phone-hacking investigation,’ he declared.

Face that says it all: Sir Paul leaves Scotland Yard for the last time following his resignation speech

London Mayor Boris Johnson on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning denied that he had sacked Sir Paul.



He said: 'I was very hacked off to discover there had been this relationship with Neil Wallis. I was very, very angry that I hadn’t been told about this.'

Asked about the implications for Assistant Commissioner John Yates he said: 'The professional standards committee of the Metropolitan Police Authority is meeting this morning and I'm sure that questions surrounding other officers will be discussed.



'I think John Yates has done a very, very good job on counter terrorism. I think he is a very, very fine officer in that respect.



'Clearly, there are now questions about his relationship with Wallis and I'm sure the MPA is going to be having a look at it.'



Metropolitan Police Authority chairman Kit Malthouse said there had been a meeting with Mr Johnson when it emerged Mr Wallis had been employed at Scotland Yard.



'There was obviously a meeting on the day of the revelation of Neil Wallis's employment at the Yard, he told BBC Breakfast.

'I think a well-documented meeting with the Mayor at which views were exchanged, and out of that meeting came a reference to Lord Leveson's inquiry to look at this issue specifically.'

Home Secretary Theresa May insisted that Sir Paul had not been forced to quit but raised concerns about Scotland Yard's involvement with Mr Wallis, former deputy editor at the News of the World.



The Home Secretary told Today programme: 'I think the Met is different from government. The Metropolitan Police are in charge, and responsible for, investigating alleged wrongdoings at the News of the World.



'I think it is important to keep a line between the investigators and the investigated.



'I had concerns, which I made clear to Sir Paul last week when I was alerted to the fact that this contract to Neil Wallis had been let, about that relationship.



'I have been clear throughout all of this, as has the Prime Minister, that the police must investigate all allegations and take all evidence and take it as far as it goes.

'It is their job to do that, and to do that properly.



Connected: David Cameron, pictured with Rebekah Brooks in 2009, faces increasing pressure over the phone hacking scandal





'But if the Metropolitan Police find at any stage that they have a potential conflict of interest, I think it is right for them to be transparent about that and that's why I think it would have been right for us to have been told about the issue in relation to Neil Wallis at an earlier stage.'



Labour leader Ed Miliband will call for Parliament to sit on Wednesday and delay the summer recess.



'Rebekah Brooks has been arrested, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has resigned, tomorrow we will have some of the most important Select Committee hearings in modern times and the Prime Minister has decided to leave the country, not to return until after Parliament breaks up for summer.



'In these circumstances the right and responsible thing for the Government to do must be to extend the parliamentary session for at least 24 hours so the House of Commons meets on Wednesday.



'It would give MPs have the chance to debate the issues arising from the Select Committee hearings and ensure the Prime Minister answers the many unanswered questions that he faces.



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'Unless the Government agrees to Parliament meeting on Wednesday, MPs cannot do their jobs properly and the Prime Minister has no chance of sorting out this crisis.'

Sir Paul's departure leaves the Metropolitan Police facing its greatest crisis for decades and marks a dramatic escalation in the scandal that has paralysed politics, the media and the police.

It came just hours after Mrs Brooks, until Friday the most powerful woman in British newspapers, was arrested on suspicion of phone-hacking and corruption.

'I was at the Yard yesterday afternoon discussing this and other matters with the Commissioner and other officers.



'But in the end, I think the decision was (Sir) Paul's alone, he has done what to many people looks like a rather old-fashioned thing to do - he has taken the fall to protect the reputation of the organisation that he leads and also to preserve his own integrity.



'He had become the story, he absolutely did not want that to happen and he has done the honourable thing.'

The pressure on Sir Paul increased yesterday as it emerged he accepted £12,000 of free hospitality at a luxury health spa that employed Mr Wallis as a PR expert. The spa is run by Stephen Purdew, a friend of former News International chief Rebekah Brooks. Sir Paul has not denied the claims.

Mayor Boris Johnson, pictured here with Sir Paul in 2009, insists that the Met Commissioner had not been sacked

In another day of extraordinary developments:

News International executives – including James Murdoch, son of the firm’s owner Rupert – were said to be under investigation over the alleged cover-up of ‘industrial scale’ phone-hacking

Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt became the first senior politician to say the Murdoch empire is not ‘fit and proper’ to own broadcasters

Mr Cameron cut back a tour of Africa this week to deal with the scandal

Labour leader Ed Miliband called for new media ownership rules to limit Rupert Murdoch’s ‘dangerous’ and ‘unhealthy’ influence

The Met Commissioner had been increasingly under fire for hiring Mr Wallis as a PR consultant before his arrest for alleged mobile phone interceptions.

To add to the turmoil at Scotland Yard, senior MPs openly questioned the timing of yesterday’s arrest of Mrs Brooks, editor of the News of the World when murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone messages are alleged to have been hacked.

It came just before she was due to appear before MPs investigating the scandal.



Last night, Sir Paul admitted he had not told Mr Cameron about his hiring of Mr Wallis to avoid ‘compromising’ him.

He said he had decided to resign ‘as a consequence of the ongoing speculation and accusations relating to the Met’s links with News International’.

Hacking suspect: Neil Wallis, pictured here leaving Hammersmith police station after being grilled by detectives on Thursday, worked as a PR at Champneys and was a £1,000-per-day Met Police consultant

‘I have heard suggestions that we must have suspected the alleged involvement of Mr Wallis in phone-hacking,’



'I wish we had judged some matters in this affair differently. I didn't and that's it'

Sir Paul said. ‘Let me say unequivocally that I did not and had no reason to have done so. I do not occupy a position in the world of journalism; I had no knowledge of the extent of this disgraceful practice and the repugnant nature of the selection of victims that is now emerging, nor of its apparent reach into senior levels.’

Sir Paul insisted his integrity was intact despite the revelations about his acceptance of thousands of pounds’ worth of free accommodation at a luxury health spa.

The news of Sir Paul’s resignation was broken to the Prime Minister by the Home Secretary in a phone call to his plane, en route to Africa for a three-day visit.

Downing Street sources said Sir Paul had been placed under no pressure to resign and his decision had come as a surprise.

One said of attempts to draw a parallel between Sir Paul’s employment of Mr Wallis and Mr Cameron’s hiring of Mr Coulson: ‘The two things are completely different.



'No one has suggested that the running of government was somehow compromised by Andy Coulson’s employment. That unfortunately cannot be said of the police, who are actually in charge of investigating what happened at the News of the World.

'There have been freebies that weren’t declared and a complete lack of transparency about the whole business.'

How a £12,000 stay at Champneys spa ended career of the Yard chief



By REBECCA CAMBER

Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation came after it emerged that he had accepted a £12,000 stay at a luxury health spa at a time when it was being promoted by a phone hacking suspect.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s judgment was already under the spotlight over his decision to hire the tabloid’s former deputy editor Neil ‘Wolfman’ Wallis as his PR adviser.

But in a devastating development which effectively ended his career, it emerged yesterday that he and his wife Linda spent five weeks at Champneys in Tring, Hertfordshire, while he recovered after having a pre-cancerous tumour removed from his leg.

Luxury spa: Champneys in Tring, Hertfordshire, was promoted by Mr Wallis without the knowledge of Sir Paul, but it ended up costing the Met Commissioner his career

At the time Champneys was being promoted by Wallis, who was arrested last Thursday by the Met’s phone hacking inquiry.

As he faced a growing clamour to resign, Champneys managing director Stephen Purdew, a personal family friend of Sir Paul, tried to defend him saying the health farm’s then PR Wallis had nothing to do with the freebie.

But the Met boss knew he faced uncomfortable questions in the weeks ahead about his conduct as he was due to be grilled by the Home Affairs Select Committee chaired by Keith Vaz.

In an increasingly murky and tangled web, the Mail can reveal that Keith Vaz is close friends with Mr Purdew and attended his wedding in 2009 – along with Rebekah Brooks and her husband, who are also close friends of the hotelier – raising suspicions that he would go soft on the embattled commissioner. Mr Purdew is godfather to one of Mr Vaz’s children.

Recently the 19-year-old son of the health spa boss spent ten days doing work experience in the Labour MP’s office, organising a Commons children’s Christmas party last year at which Samantha Cameron was the guest of honour.



Friends in high places: Champneys owner Stephen Purdew, 50, marries Isabelle Cave. Keith Vaz and Rebekah Brooks were on the guest list

The economics and politics student has also previously worked for Tony Blair. Mr Purdew, who has known Mr Vaz for 25 years, denied offering Sir Paul any hospitality or favours yesterday and said the issue was merely a ‘distraction’.

But his support came too late to save the Commissioner who had faced criticism from all sides as the Theresa May prepared to issue a statement to the Commons setting out her ‘concerns’ about the relationship between the Metropolitan Police and Chamy Media, Wallis’s PR firm.

Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman went on the offensive, saying: ‘Sir Paul has got questions to answer undoubtedly but I think that what everyone is discovering, the police included, is that there is no such thing as a free lunch.’

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also refused to give his backing to the Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner John Yates.

‘I’m not going to judge them until they have answered the questions which are being put to them,’ he said.



‘When the public starts losing faith in the police it’s altogether much more serious and we really are in some trouble,’ he told BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show.



Mayor of London Boris Johnson also piled on the pressure, saying he would write to Lord Justice Leveson to request he consider the contract between Chamy Media and the Metropolitan Police as part of his hacking inquiry.

Last night Mr Purdew told the Mail of the guilt he feels over the resignation of his friend.

‘His stay at Champneys had absolutely nothing to do with Wallis,’ he said. ‘It was all done entirely through me because he is my friend.’

He said the fact Wallis was working as a consultant for Champneys at the same time was coincidental.



‘I’m very upset, I feel to blame,’ Mr Purdew said. ‘I was just trying to get him better. He kept saying he wanted to pay for the stay. To question his integrity over this is wrong.

‘It was a relaxed situation and it was my fault on the remuneration side. I feel it’s my fault that it’s ended like this.’

Relaxing: Champneys is set in a stately home in 125 acres of parkland and offer an array of health treatments



Scotland Yard also denied that Wallis arranged the freebie. The force said Sir Paul was unaware who the health spa’s PR consultant was until yesterday’s revelation.



But Sir Paul was also being asked to explain why he did not disclose to the Prime Minister or Home Secretary that Wallis was paid £24,000 by the Met to work as a two-day-a-month PR consultant.

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



It emerged that Sir Paul shared 18 dinners with News International executives – eight of them with Mr Wallis – while his officers were investigating the media giant. He also had social drinks on up to four occasions over the past two years with Wallis.



It is also understood that during a 12-year friendship, the Met’s assistant commissioner, John Yates, enjoyed dozens of social drinks with Wallis, including several occasions over the past two years when the officer was involved in reviewing the phone-hacking investigation.

