Scotland Yard under pressure over phone-hacking scandal

Criticisms of the police handling of the phone-hacking scandal intensified when a minister accused Scotland Yard of failing to properly investigate the allegations. It has also now emerged that Gordon Brown has asked police to establish whether he has been a victim.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat energy secretary said it was “implausible” to claim the practice was confined to “one rogue reporter” at the News of the World.

He criticised the initial handling of the allegations by the police, and accused them of reacting to his calls for a full inquiry last year by "scurrying back to Scotland Yard" and dismissing the idea in an afternoon.

"It seemed to me clear that the number of people being hacked clearly was not consistent with it being one rogue reporter who happened to be the royal correspondent. Why would the royal correspondent be interested in hacking the voicemails of Simon Hughes, my colleague, who is a Liberal Democrat MP, for example?" he told British news media.

"We know the police were not keen on the subject, because when I called for a very clear review of this, the police scurried back into Scotland Yard, spent less than a day reviewing it, and popped out in time for the six o'clock news to say they had discovered no further evidence."

Scotland Yard formally closed its investigation into the allegations against the News of the World last month. However a number of public figures are continuing to pursue civil legal actions against both the newspaper and the police, prompting a series of fresh disclosures.