Andy Coulson's resignation is just the start as phone-hacking scandal threatens to create 'greater stench' for Cameron

This article is more than 9 years old

This article is more than 9 years old

David Cameron has been warned that the phone-hacking scandal that prompted the resignation of his director of communications has just begun to unravel and could dog the government for months.

Political, media and legal experts said despite Andy Coulson's departure the illegal phone hacking by News of the World journalists could still create a "greater stench" for Cameron, Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp and the Metropolitan Police.

Coulson announced his resignation yesterday, following a steady drip of allegations that he was involved in illegal phone hacking when editor of the News of the World, and the likelihood that they would continue through civil court cases and possible police inquiries.

Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair's former chief spin doctor, said the hacking scandal would create a "greater stench" the longer it went on.

"I believe the unravelling of this issue is going to continue apace," he told Sky News.

He also questioned Coulson's decision to quit, suggesting the matter was not so widely discussed as to be a resignation matter.

"I don't accept that this has become so virulent, so dominant that he couldn't do his job," said Campbell.

Tim Montgomerie, editor of the conservativehome blog, said on Twitter that Murdoch, Coulson's former boss, had pushed him to resign amid concern the hacking scandal risked damaging the media mogul's aim to complete a £8.3bn takeover of BSkyB.

He tweeted: "Twas Murdoch who ordered Coulson to go. In Ldn this week the NewsCorp boss knew Coulson at PM's side was driving focus on his papers."

Media analyst Claire Enders told the BBC that questions about News International's handling of the phone hacking scandal were particularly relevant given the takeover bid.

She said that in the circumstances it would be "unprecedented and extraordinary" if NewsCorp avoided a Competition Commission investigation of the bid.

"The NewsCorp share price has risen by 7% in the last week because of a view that it would be able to avoid a competition commission investigation," she told Radio 4.

"Therefore, there is lots of scuttlebutt that negotiations are going on between the minister responsible, Jeremy Hunt, and NewsCorps."

Suspicion has grown that News International was losing the will to fend off, or pay off, civil litigants such as the actor Sienna Miller, demanding to know the identity of News of the World executives responsible for authorising hacking of their phones.

Coulson resigned from the paper in January 2007, the day royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, were jailed for hacking into the phones of members of the royal household. He insisted the hacking was done by one rogue reporter. Coulson was appointed Cameron's communications director in April 2007 and a subsequent police investigation led to no further action.

The Guardian then published claims that hacking was widespread, and the clouds darkened around Coulson before Christmas when Ian Edmondson, the assistant editor (news) and close to Coulson, was suspended pending an investigation that he had been involved in hacking.

Downing Street has insisted Coulson's departure was not precipitated by any fresh piece of damning evidence that would undercut his claim he was unaware that phone hacking was prevalent at the News of the World under his editorship.

However, if subsequent court cases reveal Coulson did know that phone hacking was being used to secure stories, Cameron will have to assert he had been misled by his close ally, or admit that he failed to ask pertinent questions of the man who had represented his views to the country for nearly four years.

Chris Bryant, the former Labour minister who is seeking to sue the police over allegations that his phone was illegally hacked for the News of the World, said Coulson's resignation raised further questions about the judgment of Cameron and the chancellor, Goerge Osborne, who jointly appointed him.

"I'd like to know if Cameron or Osborne asked the Met [Metropolitan police] whether their phones had been intercepted," he told Sky News.

The Metropolitan Police said the Crown Prosecution Service was re-examining the evidence from the original phone-hacking investigation and would not comment further.

Paul Farrelly MP, a member of the parliamentary culture, media and sport select committee that conducted an investigation into the allegations, called for another police force to examine the Met's handling of the investigation.

"There's a real issue here of credibility in the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, and it is really important that there is an independent investigation into the handling of this. This happened previously when outside [police] forces were brought in to review the actions of a force such as the Metropolitan police."

Tasmin Allen, a lawyer pursuing a judicial review of the hacking investigation on behalf of the former deputy prime minister, John Prescott, Chris Bryant and others, said the Met's handling of the case lacked transparency.

"If there was no conspiracy, the police handling of the case so far has made it look like there is one," she told the Today programme.

"There's been a huge reluctance from the start to provide any information. It's been like getting blood out of a stone."

In a sign that the phone-hacking scandal is set to gather pace, media lawyer Mark Lewis, who acted for Gordon Taylor of the Professional Footballers' Association in a damages claim against the Notw, said he was representing four people who believe their voicemails had been intercepted by other newspaper groups.

"This was almost kids' play time. It was such a widespread practice," said Lewis.