Police 'will decide on phone hacking inquiry'

The Metropolitan Police and not the government should decide whether to re-open the investigation into the News of the World newspaper phone-hacking allegations, Home Secretary Theresa May has said.

Answering an urgent question on 6 September 2010 on fresh claims that No 10 aide Andy Coulson was complicit in phone-tapping while editor of the newspaper, Ms May told the House it was "right" for the police to say they would examine any new evidence in the case.

Fresh allegations made in the New York Times newspaper have renewed attention on the original investigation, which led to the paper's royal editor Clive Goodman being jailed in 2007; private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was also imprisoned.

Former editor of the paper Mr Coulson resigned from his job but maintained he knew nothing of the phone-hacking.

Ms May said the Met Police, director of Public Prosecutions and the Crown Prosecution Service had "all concluded that the investigation was proper and appropriate" and that a subsequent Commons select committee inquiry into the phone-hacking found no evidence of Mr Coulson's involvement.

"Conspiracy"

Labour's Tom Watson, who tabled the urgent question, made a number of claims about the case, including the charge that there was new evidence for the police to examine.

He said: "The integrity of our democracy is under scrutiny around the world. The home secretary must not join the conspiracy to make it a laughing stock."

But Ms May said the police had made clear "if there was further evidence, they would look at it", adding: "It is right for the government to await the outcome".

Alan Johnson, Ms May's shadow counterpart, sought assurances from the home secretary that Mr Coulson - now director of communications for 10 Downing Street - would "not be involved in any way" in the government's response to the allegations.