LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron defended himself in a combative session of Parliament on Wednesday over Britain’s phone hacking scandal, even as the opposition intensified its criticism of his judgment in hiring and associating with tainted figures from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
Cameron cut short an official visit to Africa and flew home to answer questions from jeering lawmakers about the scandal, whose gathering clouds have darkened Cameron’s 15-month old premiership.
First and foremost, Cameron is under fire for hiring as his communications director Andy Coulson — a now-arrested former News of the World editor — and keeping him on staff even as allegations against him mounted in the press.
Blasting Cameron and his staff for repeatedly ignoring warnings about Coulson’s role in the hacking scandal– in which the phones of thousands of British citizens were hacked by the tabloid --Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labor Party, charged that “this can’t be put down to gross incompetence. It was a deliberate attempt to hide from the facts.”
Normally unyielding and supremely confident, the 44-year-old COnservative Party leader uncomfortably conceded he had erred in offering Coulson a job.
“It was my decision. I take responsibility, and I regret and am extremely sorry about the furor it has caused,” the prime minister said. “With 20-20 hindsight, I would not have offered the job. ... You live and learn, and believe me, I have learned.”
Yet Cameron maintained that Coulson should be presumed “innocent until proven guilty,” and added that he would only offer a full apology to the nation for his decision should Coulson be convicted.
Cameron also is under fire for his ties to Rebekah Brooks, the former head of News Corp.’s British operations who was arrested on Sunday and charged with illegal interception of communication and making police bribes.
In addition, John Yates, an associate commissioner at Scotland Yard who resigned this week, said Cameron’s chief of staff specifically requested not to be briefed about developments in the phone hacking case last year, apparently to give the prime minister deniability.
The parliamentary debate began just hours after the release of a scathing committee report accusing both the Metropolitan Police and News International — the Murdoch subsidiary that owns News Corp. — of failings in phone hacking cases.
The Home Affairs Committee — which on Tuesday grilled both Yates and the former chief of Scotland Yard, who resigned over the weekend — accused the force of a “catalogue of failures” in its original investigation into phone hacking.
The report said News International had engaged in “deliberate attempts to thwart investigations,” contradicting testimony from Rupert Murdoch and his son, James Murdoch, on Tuesday, in which they claimed the company had responded properly.
The report states that News International purposely hindered Scotland Yard, including in a 2005-2006 police investigation that gave rise to the impression that phone hacking had been limited to one incident in which Prince William’s phone was hacked. In reality, it was widespread. That probe led to the arrest of two News of the World employees.
But the report also cites police failings, including the failure to examine key evidence. The report accuses Yates — who resigned under pressure this week — of “serious misjudgment” for failing to reopen the case after the Guardian newspaper published allegations of far more widespread phone hacking at the tabloid in 2009.
“There has been a catalogue of failures by the Metropolitan Police, and deliberate attempts by News International to thwart the various investigations,” committee chairman Keith Vaz said in a statement.
“The new inquiry requires additional resources, and if these are not forthcoming, it will take years to inform all the potential victims. The victims of hacking should have come first, and I am shocked that this has not happened.”