Category: news

Labour MPs have put pressure on the police to reopen the investigation into alleged phone-hacking of prominent figures by News of the World reporters.

But Home Secretary Theresa May told a heated urgent session in Parliament it was up to the police to decide the best course of action.

The Metropolitan Police has said new material on hacking had emerged that would be considered by officers.

Number 10 press chief Andy Coulson has offered to meet police over the claims.

The News of the World, of which he is the former editor, has rejected “absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing” at the newspaper.

Sean Hoare, a former reporter on the paper, has alleged Mr Coulson asked him to hack into phones – a claim Mr Coulson denies.

A spokesman for Mr Coulson, now Downing Street’s communication’s chief, said: “Andy Coulson has today told the Metropolitan Police that he is happy to voluntarily meet them following allegations made by Sean Hoare.

“Mr Coulson emphatically denies these allegations. He has, however, offered to talk to officers if the need arises and would welcome the opportunity to give his view on Mr Hoare’s claims.”

Mr Coulson came under fresh pressure last week after former journalists told the New York Times that the practice of phone hacking was far more extensive than the newspaper acknowledged when police first investigated the case.

In the House of Commons on Monday, Labour MP Tom Watson asked Ms May an emergency question about the latest allegations.

She told the House of Commons the allegations of phone-hacking had been investigated thoroughly before by different parties but this particular case was still a police “operational matter” and the government would wait for the police before making its decision.

She added: “The Metropolitan Police have made it clear if there is fresh evidence, then they will consider it.

“It is for the Metropolitan Police on an operational matter to decide what the right course of action is.”

But Mr Watson responded: “The integrity of our democracy is under scrutiny around the world and the home secretary must not make it a laughing stock”.

Shadow Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the actions of the Metropolitan Police Service had to be subjected to greater scrutiny in light of allegations by the New York Times.

He asked how many people who may have been affected by phone-hacking were informed. And he sought assurances Mr Coulson would not be involved in “any way” in the government’s response to the latest allegations.

“When I was home secretary dealing with this case there was nobody anywhere in government who was implicated. Now there is,” he said.

Mr Johnson told the Commons Mr Coulson’s position was now “untenable”.

Earlier he had suggested there could be an investigation by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary or a judicial review.

Labour MP Chris Bryant, among those affected, urged Mrs May to contact Scotland Yard again as there could be many other MPs also affected.

He said: “Last summer, I wrote to the Metropolitan Police and asked whether I was, to their knowledge, from the material that they’d gained from Mr Mulcaire a person of interest to Mr Mulcaire.

“They replied that I was, and they suggested that I ring my mobile company, who informed me that my phone had indeed been interfered with.

“I told the police this months ago, they have done absolutely nothing about it.”

Earlier, Lawyer Tamsin Allen from Bindmans LLP said her clients, who include Mr Bryant and former senior Met officer Brian Paddick, wanted the police’s decision-making in this case to be “properly scrutinised”.

Her firm said it would issue a judicial review challenging the Met’s decision not to release information to those who were potentially affected by the phone-hacking allegations.

On Monday morning, Met Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We’ve always said that if any new material or new evidence was produced then we would consider it.”

He said the New York Times and the Met Police had been in touch for many months regarding the story but Mr Hoare’s interview was the first “new evidence” it had been able to produce. He said officers would now consider the information and consult with the Crown Prosecution Service before taking any action.

In a statement published by the New York Times website, executive editor Bill Keller said Scotland Yard had declined “repeated requests” for interviews and bids for information during that time.

The News of the World’s royal editor, Clive Goodman, was jailed for conspiracy to access phone messages in 2007, along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, but the paper has insisted that this was an isolated case.

The House of Commons Culture and Media Committee criticised the conduct of the News of the World’s journalists but found no evidence that Mr Coulson either approved phone-hacking by his paper, or was aware it was taking place.

And in 2009, the Met chose not to launch an investigation following the Guardian’s claims that News of the World journalists were involved in widespread phone hacking of several thousand celebrities, sports stars and politicians.

Labour leadership contender Ed Balls, former Labour minister Tessa Jowell, who says her phone was hacked 28 times, and former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott, who also believes he was targeted, have all called for action.

Lib Dem MP Tom Brake, in charge of his party’s backbench home affairs committee, told the BBC he has “misgivings” about the way the police handled the hacking investigation.

The News of the World has rejected “absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing” at the newspaper.

It said in a statement: “The News of the World repeatedly asked the New York Times to provide evidence to support their allegations and they were unable to do so.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Plans for a referendum on the way MPs are elected will take centre stage on Monday as the House of Commons resumes business after the summer recess.

MPs will debate a bill paving the way for a referendum on 5 May 2011 on whether to change the current system.

There is unease in Tory ranks and among nationalist parties about the date as it coincides with devolved elections.

Although it backs the poll Labour has threatened to vote against the bill due to plans to change constituency sizes.

The commitment to hold a referendum on replacing the current first-past-the-post electoral system with an alternative vote system – where voters rank constituency candidates in order of preference – was a key part of the coalition deal signed by the Conservatives and Lib Dems in May.

Most Conservative MPs, including David Cameron, are opposed to the change, but the party conceded the referendum as part of the power-sharing deal.

The Lib Dems have long argued the current system is unfair and needs reform.

Monday’s session will be the first debate on the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill – which must be approved in the next couple of months to enable a May poll to be held.

However, opposition to the poll date among Tory MPs could cause problems for the coalition.

More than 45 MPs – most of them Conservative – have signed a motion calling for it to be moved to another day, arguing that holding it concurrently with elections to the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly, as well as local council elections in some parts of England, could distort the result.

By holding it then, they say it could lead to different levels of turnout across the UK – favouring one side over the other – as well as “clouding” the arguments involved.

Deputy Prime Minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said it is “insulting” to voters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to say they cannot deal with multiple votes on the same day and a 5 May poll will save money.

In an article for the Sunday Telegraph ahead of the new Parliamentary term, Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron said the need for a referendum reflected “genuine concerns” about the current system.

Under the existing arrangement, Labour was re-elected in 2005 with just 35% of the total vote.

“We emphatically agree that the decision is not, in any case, for government alone. It should be taken by the people themselves,” they wrote.

The bill’s passage is likely to be further complicated by the fact that Labour has threatened to vote against it because of separate proposals to conduct boundary reviews to make constituency sizes more uniform.

The coalition says it is unfair that some MPs need almost twice as many votes to get elected as others as their constituencies are much larger in terms of registered voters.

Labour say the proposals to “equalise” constituency sizes – as well as cutting their number by 650 to 600 – will disproportionately hurt Labour-supporting areas and is equivalent to “gerrymandering”.

The coalition has accused Labour of “opposition for opposition’ s sake”.

Electoral reform campaigners have urged the parties to put “partisan” differences aside over the issue to ensure the referendum takes place next year.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Charles Saatchi’s plan to donate his gallery to the British public has hit a stumbling block after talks with Arts Council England broke down.

His proposal, announced in July, included £25m of art for the nation.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt called the gift, including Tracey Emin’s My Bed, an “act of incredible generosity”.

But BBC arts editor Will Gompertz says there were several inherent issues within Mr Saatchi’s proposals that may have led to the current setback.

One of them could be the idea of part-financing the new institution by buying and selling items in the permanent collection, a policy which runs against the code of ethics set out by the Museums’ Association.

Others have objected to the creation of a new museum of contemporary art, as it would duplicate the role of Tate Modern.

It is understood that the Saatchi Gallery’s talks have now resumed with a separate, non-publically funded arts organisation.

A spokeswoman for Mr Saatchi said: “There is nothing more to say for the time being but hopefully [there will be] in the next few weeks”.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) told the BBC it would not give a “running commentary” on discussions.

“Ministers made clear in July that they very much welcome the announcement by Charles Saatchi of his intention to donate his collection to the nation,” read the DCMS statement.

“Any donation of this type involves a range of logistical issues and the details of how it will best be taken forward have not been finalised.”

‘No charges’

Under the plans, the 70,000 sq ft Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, owned by Cadogan Estate, would become the Museum of Contemporary Art for London (Moca London).

A permanent collection of 200 works by high-profile British artists, including Emin, would form part of the gift.

Other works in the collection include Tragic Anatomies, by Jake and Dinos Chapman, which features mutated mannequins in a garden, and an installation by Emily Prince made up of thousands of drawings of US military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A wall of bones which form the text of a Gandhi speech – by Indian artist Jitish Kallat – and French-Algerian artist Kader Attia’s room of life-sized praying figures made from aluminium foil are also included.

The gallery’s managers said in July they would make sure free entrance continued by raising money from sponsorship and hosting events.

They added that the museum would meet all costs of handing over its collection, and “no charges will fall to the state”.

Mr Saatchi, 67, would also continue to own many hundreds of works himself, it continued, “which will be passed to his family on his death”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

A father speaks of his shock after his eight-year-old son picked up a pipe bomb in a school playground in Antrim.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

A 22-year-old man has been jailed for three years and four months after killing a man who was on a night out with his father in Flintshire.

Gafyn Denman, from Mold, had previously admitted killing Peter Jones, 24, with a single punch on 9 May in Buckley.

Co-defendant Ross Taylor received eight months for assaulting Mr Jones’ father, also called Peter, on the same day.

Denman had denied assaulting Mr Jones’ father at an earlier hearing at Caernarfon Crown Court.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

A vicar has been jailed for four years for carrying out hundreds of fake marriages to bypass immigration law.

Rev Alex Brown conducted 360 sham marriages during a four-year period at the Church of St Peter and St Paul in St Leonard, Sussex.

Co-defendants Vladimir Buchan, 33, and solicitor and pastor Michael Adelasoye, 50, were also jailed for four years.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it was thought to be the largest sham marriage case yet brought to court.

The trio were found guilty at Lewes Crown Court in July of conspiring to facilitate the commission of breaches of immigration laws.

Judge Richard Hayward also handed Brown a five-month sentence for solemnizing a marriage without the banns being published.

The two sentences will run concurrently.

The court heard Brown presided over the marriages of hundreds of mainly African men to Eastern European women at his small parish church.

The men had usually arrived lawfully in the UK but had exhausted the appeals process in applying to stay permanently.

Investigators from the UK Border Agency said the three were “happy to exploit and take advantage of other people’s desperation for their own ends”.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Banking giant Barclays has announced that it is to create up to 600 jobs in Glasgow.

It plans to expand its presence in the city, with a new facility for its investment banking and wealth management division.

Barclays will receive more than £6.5m in Regional Selective Assistance Funding from Scottish Enterprise.

First Minister Alex Salmond said it reflected the resilience and quality of Scotland’s financial services industry.

Scotland has been hit by big job losses at Standard life and Direct Line in the past fortnight.

The new jobs have been created in part through a grant from The Financial Services Advisory Board (FISAB).

As part of this project, Barclays is establishing a global shared services hub in Glasgow to support the activity of its investment banking and wealth management divisions.

It should take the number of staff employed by Barclays in Glasgow to more than 2,000.

The first minister said he was “delighted” that Barclays had chosen to expand its business in Scotland despite tough competition from emerging markets.

He said it was a boost for the financial services industry, which employs approximately 95,000 people and accounts for about 8% of Scotland’s GDP.

Mr Salmond added: “Glasgow has a long-established reputation as global financial centre with the infrastructure and expertise that can deliver success.”

Ian Axe, head of operations at Barclays Capital and Barclays Wealth, said: “This example of collaboration between the investment banking and wealth management divisions at Barclays is an exciting development for clients, staff and potential employees in Glasgow and across Scotland.”

The jobs announcement came as Scotland’s financial sector was hit by news big job losses in the past fortnight.

Glasgow-based insurance firm Direct Line announced it was cutting 400 jobs.

While Insurance company Standard Life said it was shedding 500 jobs, the bulk in Edinburgh.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

A primary school in Antrim has been evacuated in a bomb alert.

Children were moved from St Comgall’s Primary School on the Ballymena Road on Monday morning. They have taken shelter in a nearby church.

Army bomb officers are at the scene of the alert where they are examining a suspicious object.

The Ballymena Road has been partially closed. SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns said staff found what they thought was a pipe bomb.

“From what I have been told, school staff spotted what they took to be a pipe bomb behind the school,” he said.

“There is obviously a group which is determined to cause mayhem in our town with these regular pipe bomb incidents, and until we know otherwise, we have to operate on the basis that they are prepared to cause murder as well.

“This is an attack on our whole community and the whole community must respond by working with our community policing service.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The Israeli foreign minister says he will block any attempt by the coalition government to extend the partial freeze on settlements in the West Bank.

Avigdor Lieberman said his hard-line Yisrael Beitenu party was powerful enough to defeat any such proposal.

The Palestinian Authority has said it will not continue US-sponsored peace talks – the first in almost two years – if settlement building resumes.