The Scoop

Phone hacking: Mayor Boris gets confused

Darryl Chamberlain | Friday 8 July, 2011 13:18

Last year, Boris Johnson thought the News of the World phone hacking scandal was codswallop cooked up by the Guardian and the Labour Party.

This week, it was revealed the paper’s targets included murder victims, the relatives of those killed on 7/7, and the families of dead soldiers.

This afternoon, David Cameron’s former press spokesman Andy Coulson has been arrested, and is currently being questioned by officers at Lewisham police station about just what went on at the NotW on his watch.

As for the News of the World itself, it was closed by News International yesterday, throwing hundreds of staff out of work.

Not codswallop, then.

Earlier this week, BBC London reminded the mayor of his “codswallop” comment. It’s worth watching to see his utterly confused response of a man who was overseeing the Metropolitan Police during its earlier, failed, investigation into phone hacking.

If he held a few more press conferences, he might do better at dealing with those tough questions.

Of course, it’s worth remembering that Ken Livingstone was in charge while Metropolitan Police officers were alleged to have been taking money from the News of the World.

David Cameron isn’t the only politician who’ll be watching future events very closely indeed – this could have a serious impact on London politics as well.

(Thanks to iamsoftlad for uploading the clip.)

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