EMILY Thornberry twisted the knife into David Cameron on Wednesday during a heated Prime Minister’s Questions exchange on phone hacking.

The Labour MP for Finsbury and Islington South (pictured) leapt on an omission from Mr Cameron that he was aware of an article in the New York Times claiming Andy Coulson, his former director of communications, knew about phone hacking while he was editor of the News of the World.

Ms Thornberry told the Commons: “He has told the House that the article contained no new information which could cause him to change his mind over the employment of Andrew Coulson.

“This statement leads to a number of other questions: Did he read the article himself? Who pointed it out to him? And with whom did he have the discussions which caused him to believe he had no reason to change his mind over Coulson?”

The New York Times article said “Coulson talked freely with colleagues about the dark arts, including hacking”, and there had been “dozens if not hundreds of meetings” when the matter was discussed.

Mr Cameron told the House there was “no information” in the article that changed his opinion about Mr Coulson, adding: “I set myself a very simple test, which is that if anyone brought me credible information that showed he knew about hacking, I would have fired him.”

Mr Coulson worked at Number 10 for four months after the dis­closure in the New York Times. 

Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn told the Commons that Mr Cameron should reveal “on what occasions, with whom and where, in the time since he became Prime Minister, he has ever discussed the Murdoch bid to take over BskyB completely?”

Ms Thornberry told the Tribune: “In my opinion, it makes Cameron’s plausible deniability very implausible.”

Published: 22 July, 2011
by TOM FOOT