This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

More celebrities and high-profile public figures who believe they may have been victims of phone hacking have been consulting lawyers over possible action against the News of the World, it has emerged today.

Mark Stephens, a lawyer at Finers Stephens Innocent, said several legal firms had been approached by people who thought they might have been the target of tabloid dirty tricks.

"Aggrieved celebrities are contacting lawyers across London," Stephens told BBC's Today programme. "I had two calls yesterday – one from somebody who has been identified by the Guardian as having been hacked and also the private office of somebody who believes they may have been."

The Guardian also revealed today that the Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, and the former Newcastle United manager Alan Shearer were among those whose private telephone messages were recorded by a private investigator working for the News of the World.

Both men are said to have left messages on the mobile phone of Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, who sued the newspaper last year, according to sources familiar with the police investigation.

The prospect of legal action by victims comes after three fresh inquiries were launched yesterday into the conduct of News of the World journalists following the Guardian's disclosures that Rupert Murdoch's News Group company paid £1m to keep secret the use of criminal methods to get stories.

The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, ordered an urgent review of the evidence relating to phone hacking gathered in the investigation of the News of the World reporter Clive Goodman, who was jailed in January 2007 for obtaining information illegally.

A powerful Commons select committee said it would be calling senior managers from News International to give evidence as early as next week to clarify what they knew about malpractice by journalists at the News of the World.

The inquiry by the culture, media and sport select committee is expected to call the former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, who resigned after Goodman was jailed and is now the Conservative party's director of communications.

The Press Complaints Commission also announced it was conducting an inquiry.

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has defended Coulson, saying he did "an excellent job in a proper, upright way".

The Met's assistant commissioner, John Yates, said Scotland Yard would not be reopening its files because no new evidence had come to light and the original inquiry had concluded that phone hacking had occurred in a minority of cases.

Legal experts said the Yard's decision would not affect the ability of alleged hacking victims to sue the News of the World for breach of privacy and today Stephens said Yates's statement did not "address the possibility that there had been a criminal attempt or a potential criminal conspiracy".

"I think Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, will force the police to reopen this investigation," he told the BBC.

The parliamentary inquiry will focus on executives at News International, including Rebekah Wade, the outgoing Sun editor who has been promoted to News International chief executive; Stuart Kuttner, the News of the World's outgoing managing editor; Colin Myler, the current News of the World editor; and Les Hinton, the former chairman of News International. Hinton left News International in December 2007 to become the New York-based chief executive of anther News Corporation subsidiary, Dow Jones, which publishes the Wall Street Journal.

John Whittingdale, the chairman of the culture select committee, said he was particularly keen to question Hinton, who told a previous hearing he was "absolutely convinced" that Goodman was the only person who knew about the phone hacking at the paper.

Whittingdale added that he was "completely shocked" that News Group had paid out more than £1m to settle cases involving illegal surveillance and said he would be asking Hinton whether he wished to amend the evidence he gave the committee then.

Another member of the committee, Labour MP Paul Farrelly, said Hinton would be asked "whether he wishes to correct, or amplify, his evidence".

"That reopens our inquiry and, if we are not satisfied with the answers, parliament can potentially take the rare – but reputationally serious – step of finding witnesses in contempt," he wrote on the Guardian's Comment is Free website.

News International said last night it was "prevented by confidentiality obligations from discussing certain allegations made in the Guardian newspaper".

The company added that its journalists had complied with relevant legislation and codes of conduct since February 2007, after the Goodman case and Coulson's resignation.

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