Political Fallout of Phone Hacking Scandal

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has came under renewed pressure over the phone-hacking scandal. He apologized in the British parliament for hiring ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson as Downing Street’s communications chief. Anchor Lisa Mullins talks to Elizabeth Rigby of the Financial Times about the political impact of the scandal on the British government. (Audio available after 5PM Eastern)

Coverage of the Phone Hacking Scandal on The World

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Lisa Mullins: In Britain, it wasn’t Rupert Murdoch on the defensive today over the phone hacking scandal over at one of his newspapers, it was the Prime Minister, David Cameron’s turn to apologize. Cameron’s been dragged into the scandal because he hired a former News of the World worker, Andy Coulson, as his communications director. Andy Coulson has since resigned, but today, at an emergency meeting of parliament, the Prime Minister was still answering questions about his hire.

David Cameron(clip): Of course, I regret, and I am extremely sorry about the furory it has caused. With 20/20 hindsight, and all that has followed, I would not have offered him the job, and I expect that he wouldn’t have taken it, but you don’t make decisions in hindsight, you make them in the present. You live and you learn, and believe you me, I have learned.

Mullins: That again, Prime Minister David Cameron speaking in parliament today. Elizabeth Rigby is chief political correspondent at the financial times in London. She explains why Andy Coulson’s hire was so controversial in the first place.

Elizabeth Rigby: Andy Coulson had to resign as the editor of the News of the World in 2007 after two people were convicted of phone hacking. Cameron, then hired Andy Coulson, as his communications chief, when he was the opposition leader. When he assumed power in May, he took Andy Coulson into the heart of Downing Street. Now, it emerges, that he was advised by the deputy Prime Minister, by other senior politicians, to not take Andy Coulson into Downing Street because of these allegations around phone hacking, and they sensed that Coulson could somehow be implicated in it. And so it’s really tarnished the Prime Minister’s reputation.

Mullins: Tarnished the Prime Minister’s reputation, because he made what seems to be possibly a bad hire, or is David Cameron himself, the Prime Minister,implicated in this?

Rigby: It’s tarnished in the sense that he, it’s a catastrophic error of judgement, that he actually brought Andy Coulson into government when he was advised not to. Subsequently though, what’s beginning to emerge in the press, is that on numerous occasions, various different people, be it editors of newspapers, other politicians, tried to present evidence to mister Cameron, saying, ‘Look, Andy Coulson is tarnished, you should not have him in government.’, and he turned a blind eye to this. And so he’s been really hounded at the moment as to why he’s turned a blind eye to it, and he partly called this emergency debate today, to try and get back on the front foot with this, and re-establish his reputation and his image.

Mullins: But aside from being accused of making potentially a very bad hire by bringing Andy Coulson on, is the Prime Minister implicated in any other way?

Rigby: No. I mean, what we could say about this is for David Cameron, this is like a rash not a plague, so the Coulson connection, brings him into phone hacking in that he made a bad judgement hire in this guy, so it’s an irritation, but it’s not fatal.

Mullins: Tell us, what the American interests are here, because there are many on different spheres.

Rigby: There are two American interests here, the first one is corporate government at news core, the second one is whether American citizens, or British people in America have been victims of phone hacking. On the first issue, Rupert Murdoch, appeared in front of a select group in the House of Commons this week, and he repeatedly said he didn’t really know what was going on at the News of the World, which is not really acceptable in terms of corporate governments. So there’s a question mark now over how news core share holders, and non-executive directors, are going to chew that information over and take action or not. My sense is it’s only a matter of time, before this story tips over into the U.S.

Mullins: Elizabeth Rigby, chief political corespondent at the Financial Times, telling us about Prime Minister David Cameron’s appearance in parliament and what the hacking scandal means politically, there and here. Elizabeth, thank you.

Rigby: Thanks.

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