Independent 'hacking' probe call

The Director of Public Prosecutions has been urged to commission an investigation by an outside police force into the Metropolitan Police Service’s handling of allegations of phone-hacking by the News of the World.

Labour MP Tom Watson, a member of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, wrote to DPP Keir Starmer calling for “urgent investigation” of what he claimed could amount to “conspiracy to pervert the course of justice”.

His demand came after Mr Starmer announced on Monday that prosecutors will expand their review of evidence gathered during the phone hacking inquiry to include fresh claims from individuals who believe they have been targeted.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s (CPS) decision to widen its review, overseen by barrister Alison Levitt QC, adds to the pressure on the Met to reopen its investigation following the resignation last week of Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson.

Mr Coulson has faced a barrage of difficult questions about his conduct while editor of the News of the World.

The paper’s former royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, was jailed in 2007 along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

But Mr Watson said that the argument for another police force to look at the Met’s handling of the case was now “insurmountable”.

He queried why Met officers investigating the allegations against Goodman did not interview other senior members of the newspaper’s staff or conduct searches of their desks and computers, instead deciding to write to solicitors representing the News of the World to request information.

And he said that the Met had failed to notify all those whose names appeared in paperwork seized from Mulcaire and had been “unco-operative” when requested to provide copies of the notes to lawyers acting on behalf of those who believe they may have been targeted for hacking.

A Scotland Yard spokesman declined to comment on Mr Watson’s call, saying only that the Met had not received a letter from him.