Lord Prescott and others want to know more about the Met's investigation

Four men who believe the News of the World hacked their phones have won their latest bid to mount legal action over police handling of the case.

They are former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott, Labour MP Chris Bryant, ex-Scotland Yard boss Brian Paddick and journalist Brendan Montague.

The men, who believe their human rights were breached, have been seeking a judicial review at the High Court.

Judge Mr Justice Foskett ruled their cases could now go to a full hearing.

He said Lord Prescott, Mr Bryant and Scotland Yard's former deputy assistant commissioner Mr Paddick each had "an arguable case for seeking the relief claimed by way of judicial review".

He added that he was not "truly persuaded" Mr Montague had such an arguable claim but he would allow it to proceed with the others.

Reacting to developments, Mr Bryant told the BBC people would be asking why police limited their investigation in 2006 "to just a very few cases".

It could be that individual officers were too close to senior people at the newspapers”

Brian Paddick
He said the public would also want to know why officers "point blank refused" to inform all potential victims and pursue every piece of evidence.

"Imagine that this was about elderly people living in their homes who were subject to fraudsters in their community who decided to listen to their mobile phone messages to find out when they were going to be at home or not," he said.

"If the police had found criminality in relation to three or four houses, you would think that they would want to notify all the other potential victims so that they could protect themselves.

"And that's exactly what we believe should have happened in 2006, and in addition if they'd investigated all the paperwork that they had, including the material in relation to me and many, many others, then they would probably have found far more criminal activity than thus far has ever got to court."

Mr Paddick said the reason police did not follow up all their leads could have been down to a lack of resources or a desire to safeguard their reputation and keep positive stories in the media.

But he added: "It could be that individual officers were too close to senior people at the newspapers."

At proceedings earlier this month, Hugh Tomlinson QC, who represents the four men, said their application concerned the "lawfulness" of the way the Metropolitan Police dealt with the case in 2006 "when police officers became aware of what was going on".

He said they were seeking declarations in relation to claims that the police "failed to inform them they were victims".

He also claimed police failed to respond adequately to their requests for information and failed to carry out an effective investigation at the time.

The Met Police are re-examining the entire case dating back to 2006, when the News of the World's former royal editor, Clive Goodman, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for hacking into the mobile phone voicemails of royal aides.

Since then, a series of inquiries and legal cases have been exploring just how widespread the practice was.

More and more celebrities and public figures have alleged their phones have been hacked and some have launched legal actions against the paper or the police for allegedly failing to investigate.

News International has offered to co-operate fully with a Metropolitan Police inquiry.

Chris Huhne’s ministerial career looks more precarious than ever after the Cabinet appeared to distance itself from the Energy Secretary

Essex Police are already investigating allegations that Mr Huhne asked his estranged wife Vicky Pryce to take speeding points on his behalf.
Miss Pryce piled further pressure on Mr Huhne when she released a copy of her driving licence to a Sunday newspaper showing that she had received three points on March 12 2003 – the date she alleges Mr Huhne was caught speeding.
And as the fall out from Miss Pryce’s allegations continued it was suggested that one of Mr Huhne’s own children could volunteer to give evidence against him.
Mr Huhne, 56, is continuing to deny the allegations that he asked others to take speeding points for him.
But, following reports that Miss Pryce is not the only person to have taken points on Mr Huhne’s behalf, William Hague refused to back his Cabinet colleague, saying it was a matter for Mr Huhne to deal with himself.

 

Brown had his faults but he helped steer IMF policy, pushed aid on to the global agenda and took the lead when banking was near collapse.

Imagine that in the aftermath of Tony Blair's landslide victory in the 1997 general election John Major had pitched for the job as managing director of the International Monetary Fund only to be told that the new Labour government was backing a French candidate instead.

Blair would have been accused of being vindictive towards an old adversary, even though he had been prime minister on the day the Bank of England took on George Soros and lost. It would have been seen as not just small-minded but unpatriotic to plump for someone from across the Channel.

David Cameron and George Osborne are unlikely to face similar censure for their blackballing of Gordon Brown's bid to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the head of the IMF, but their treatment of the former prime minister is shabby nonetheless.

Let's be clear: Brown made plenty of blunders during his 13 years first as chancellor and then prime minister. He did not abolish boom and bust; he failed to tame the growing power of the City; he left the economy far too dependent on two or three sources of growth.

But he was also the longest serving chancellor since Gladstone; he presided over the IMF's key policy committee expertly for almost a decade; he drove forward an international agenda on development and he took the initiative when the global banking industry was about to implode in the autumn of 2008. In any other country for that matter, that would make him a serious contender for the job. Not in Britain.

In part, this is due to personal factors. Both Cameron and Osborne feel that Brown treated them w ith contempt and hostility when he was in office, and so feel under no obligation to a political opponent. The reason for the snub goes deeper than that, though.

Since Labour's defeat at the general election a year ago, the coalition has been keen to portray Brown as the prime minister who left the country in a state of near-bankruptcy, thus making the current painful austerity measures inevitable. Plenty of voters share this view and they might find it strange for the government to be trashing Brown's record on the one hand and bigging him up for the IMF job on the other.

It is also a sense of their insecurity perhaps that neither Cameron nor Osborne fancies having Brown taking pot shots at them from the fund's HQ in Washington. Under Strauss-Kahn, the IMF has been kindly disposed towards the gamble the government has been taking with fiscal policy; ministers think they will get an easier ride with Christine Lagarde in charge, and they are almost certainly right about that.

If all this seems a bit domestically focused, that's because the government doesn't really have an agenda for the international institutions. Cameron and Osborne dutifully turn up for meetings of the G8, the G20 and the IMF, but are happy to take a back-seat role. To take just one example, the G8 will be meeting in Deauville this week at a time when the three leading European countries – Germany, France and Italy – have broken the solemn aid promises they made at the Gleneagles summit in 2005. Under Blair or Brown, the UK would have made one hell of a fuss about that. There has not been a peep out of Cameron or Osborne, for whom aid spending appears to be merely about the detoxification of the Tory brand.

Similarly, the government's support for Lagarde appears to be based on the fact that she is not Brown rather than on what the French finance minister plans to do with the IMF. Again, this is depressingly parochial.

The IMF exists to ensure the smooth running of the global economy, to provide early warnings of problems ahead and to act as a firefighter when problems arise, as they inevitably will. It was found sadly lacking before and during the financial crisis of 2007-08 – not just failing to identify trouble ahead but actively promoting the financial free-for-all that caused the speculative frenzy. When the bubble burst, the fund lacked the resources to fulfil its role as a lender of last resort.

There is a big agenda for the new managing director, because most of the problems that caused the biggest downturn since the 1930s have not gone away. They have simply been brushed under the carpet by policymakers eager to return to business as usual.

As it has been since it was established at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, the fund is badly placed to rectify imbalances in the global economy. After the second world war, the overwhelming power of the United States meant Washington was able to insist that the burden of adjustment always fell squarely on the weak, with no reciprocal obligations on the strong. It was up to a country running a balance of payments deficit to reduce its import bill through deflationary policies; the country running a balance of payments surplus was required to do nothing.

Almost seven decades later, Washington perhaps now regrets this asymmetrical approach, since the US runs the world's biggest current account surplus and the big creditor nations – China, Japan and Germany – are under no obligation to boost US exports by expanding their domestic demand.

The next MD should, therefore, be pushing for a pact for growth and employment. Under Strauss-Kahn, the fund began work with the International Labour Organisation to promote policies that would ensure growth is employment-rich, and to explore policies that would create a social protection floor. This work needs to be accelerated.

In addition, the IMF needs to recognise that there is often a tension between the pursuit of full employment and financial liberalisation, particularly when the free movement of capital leads to speculative bubbles. Reform of international finance, with a less dogmatic approach towards capital controls, is needed.

The fund also has to ensure that it can both spot trouble brewing and, crucially, have mechanisms in place to ensure that its warnings are heeded. There has been much talk in recent years of multilateral surveillance, in which the key players in the global economy would agree to implement mutually supportive policies, but little evidence that the warm words have been turned into meaningful action.

Nor is there likely to be while large chunks of the emerging world remain deeply suspicious of the IMF, led as it is by the US and Europe. China and other Asian countries have built up huge reserves since the Asian crisis of the late 1990s, with destabilising consequences for the global economy, to ensure that they are not forced to go cap in hand to the fund. Further reforms to governance – to ensure that developing countries have more say in the running of the IMF – would help generate a more collaborative atmosphere.

Finally, there is the broader agenda of multilateralism, which includes climate change and trade. These are not strictly within the fund's remit but it has a role in promoting policies designed to make growth less environmentally damaging and trade flows more balanced.

So that's the agenda, and a full one it is to be sure. In an open and fair process, potential candidates would be measured against this sort of template. Will this happen or will the IMF job be subject to the usual mix of carve up, power politics and backstairs intrigue? Silly question, to which we already have the answer.

 

THE daughter-in-law of former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd has plunged 40ft to her death from the roof of her New York home.

Mum-of-five Catherine Hurd was found in the early hours of Saturday morning near her home close to the UN headquarters, where her husband worked.

The couple were due to return to the UK in a week’s time when his posting came to an end.

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Mrs Hurd, 46, was taken by paramedics to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Police believe it was suicide but did not find a note.

A New York Police spokesman said: “Police responded to a call and found a 46-year-old woman outside 445 East 84th Street ­unresponsive and with severe trauma. There is no suspicion of criminality at this time.”

Her husband Thomas, 45, is the Conservative veteran’s son and a contemporary of Prime Minister David Cameron at Eton.

The Middle East expert is part of the UK arm of the United Nations Security Council.

The Foreign Office has refused to comment on Mrs Hurd’s death.

Bank watchdogs to probe Sir Fred Goodwin over alleged secret affair

THE British banking regulator will investigate whether Sir Fred Goodwin's sex life contributed to the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The Financial Services Authority are to liaise with RBS to find out if Sir Fred's alleged secret affair with a senior colleague had anything to do with the bank's failure.
Taxpayers had to pour £50billion into RBS after the banking giant were brought to their knees under Sir Fred's leadership.
The bank were part-nationalised with the loss of 20,000 jobs and the Government were left with a huge financial deficit.
Last night it emerged Fred the Shred may have breached his contract by hiding his affair from the board.
But RBS bosses snubbed millions of taxpayers by refusing to confirm or deny whether they knew about his secret and kept it hidden from financial regulators.
Sir Fred's affair was only revealed on Thursday when Lib Dem peer Lord Stoneham used parliamentary privilege to flout a super-injunction covering any details of the issue being reported.
The High Court then lifted a gagging order, allowing the media to reveal that married dad-of-two Sir Fred, 52, tried to hide a "sexual relationship" - but not to name his mistress or details of the relationship.
Campaigners urgently want to know whether his affair affected or hastened the bank's dramatic downfall.
Lord Oakeshott said: "I'm very concerned the whole story should be out there, should be properly investigated and we should all learn the lessons of the collapse. This was the biggest corporate crash in British history."
Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: "We have a right to know the full story.
"Depending on when it happened, there are lots of ways an affair could have created the management distraction that led to RBS needing the massive bailout. " Sir Fred, who married wife Joyce in 1990, was chief executive of RBS from 2000 to 2008.
He was widely blamed for the bank's demise and became the face of the banking crisis that led to the recession.
He was nicknamed Fred the Shred because of brutal staff cuts during his time at RBS.
After it all went wrong, Sir Fred waltzed off with a £2.7million lump sum and a £700,000-a-year pension.
Grim-faced Lady Goodwin, 51, was yesterday spotted leaving the couple's £3.5million mansion in Colinton, Edinburgh, on the school run with the couple's children.

ENERGY Secretary Chris Huhne may be quizzed by cops over claims he tried to dodge a drive ban by talking someone into accepting speeding points on his behalf.

ENERGY Secretary Chris Huhne may be quizzed by cops over claims he tried to dodge a drive ban by talking someone into accepting speeding points on his behalf.
Lib Dem Mr Huhne, who denies the allegations, is facing calls to step down if an official investigation is launched.

Yesterday a tape of a phone call emerged in which he urges an unnamed witness not to talk to the media.

Mr Huhne says: "If I were you... do not talk. I would have thought you would not want to talk."

In the tape, obtained legally by The Sunday Times, he adds: "There is no way that there is any evidence for this story, unless you decide to give some legs to it by saying something. OK?"

Mr Huhne's estranged wife Vicky Pryce, 57, claimed last week he had "pressurised people" to take penalty points. She added: "He does drive a bit like a maniac." Last night it was claimed Mrs Pryce was the driver who took the blame for the speeding offence.

She has supposedly told pals she is prepared to co-operate with cops.

Essex Police acted after a formal complaint from Labour MP Simon Danczuk about the alleged incident in the county in 2003. A spokesman added: "The information will be passed to officers who will decide if an investigation will be launched."


Mr Danczuk called on Mr Huhne to step down if there is an inquiry. He said: "These are very serious allegations. We're talking about perverting the course of justice."

A spokesman for Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said: "Nick and Chris spoke last week. Chris denied the allegations and nothing has changed since then."

The Scottish National Party will form Scotland's first ever majority government after a stunning election victory.

The party has reached 65 seats in the 129-seat parliament, with some counts still to declare, taking key seats in Labour heartlands.

The Liberal Democrat vote also collapsed, with the party returning four MSPs so far.

The SNP now has enough Holyrood votes to hold an independence referendum.

Labour leader Iain Gray announced he would stand down from the job in the autumn.

SNP leader Alex Salmond, whose party formed a minority government after the 2007 elections, described the unfolding Holyrood election results as "historic".

Prime Minister David Cameron also offered his congratulations to the SNP leader for an "emphatic win".

The reasons? A concatenation of circumstances which, combined, have given the SNP the most convincing and stunning victory in their history.

Among its successes, the SNP won all 10 first-past-the-post seats in the north east and still managed to pick up an additional regional list seat after amassing more than 140,000 votes.

Labour big hitters, including finance spokesman Andy Kerr and former minister Tom McCabe, lost to the SNP in the party's West of Scotland heartland, while, in Glasgow, the SNP won the Anniesland seat with a majority of just seven votes.

Mr Gray said he had spoken to Mr Salmond early on Friday to congratulate him on his victory.

He continued: "Labour has lost many talented representatives, and it seems very likely that Labour's new and returning MSPs will play their part in the democratic process in the Scottish Parliament from opposition, but will do so with gusto.

"Labour's MSPs will work constructively with the new Scottish government to create jobs and tackle unemployment wherever we can."

Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University indicated that Labour appeared to have had its poorest performance in Scotland for at least 80 years.

He added it was fairly clear that the party's campaign had "badly misfired" and "badly missed its target".

Mr Gray was only narrowly re-elected as MSP for East Lothian with a majority of 151 votes, while his Lib Dem counterpart, Tavish Scott, also held on to his seat, despite losing 20% of his constituency vote in Shetland.

Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie returned to Holyrood on the west of Scotland list.

The Liberal Democrats no longer have a single seat in Hertsmere for the first time in the council's history.

The party suffered a crushing blow in the local elections, losing its only two seats on Hertsmere Borough Council.

Group leader Roger Kutchinsky, chose to stand in Bushey Heath, rather than his previous ward Bushey North, but lost by a staggering majority to Conservative Councillor Paul Morris who retained his position.

The vacant seat in Bushey North was taken by Conservative candidate Leslie Winters, while fellow Conservative representative Carey Keates won in Bushey St James, where Liberal Democrat Anita Gamble stood down.

The results mean the Liberal Democrats have lost all of their seats in the borough, but Councillor Kutchinsky said it was not the end for the party locally.

He said: "The people have spoken and I am not sure all of our supporters have sympathy with the move into a coalition. There has been a national trend against the Liberal Democrats and that has taken its toll locally.

"I don't see this as the end of the party in Hertsmere but we will have to rebuild from a much lower base. We will still be active in the area, campaigning on pressing matters for the residents of Bushey."

Leader of the council, Councillor Morris Bright, said he was delighted at his party gaining one seat in the borough, but said he was not concerned that there is no-longer cross party representation in the council chamber.

He said: "I would be more disappointed for the Liberal Democrats if they had fielded candidates in every ward, but in Borehamwood they were absent.

"I am very disappointed that people like Roger Kutchinsky have gone, but the reality is that this is democracy and people have made their choice."