James Murdoch’s evidence to parliament was “mistaken”, according to a statement by News of the World’s former editor and lawyer.
Colin Myler and Tom Crone today said they had informed the News Corp CEO and Chairman's son of an email, given to the company by the lawyers of the Professional Footballers' Association’s Gordon Taylor, which indicated phone hacking was widespread at News International.
"Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday's CMS Select Committee hearing, we would like to point out that James Murdoch's recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken.
"In fact, we did inform him of the "for Neville" email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor's lawyers."
But James Murdoch released a statement this evening saying: "I stand behind my testimony to the Select Committee."
Culture select committee MP Tom Watson tweeted in response to the News:
If Myler + Crone are right, it shows Murdoch was engaged in a cover up, hiding truth from shareholders, readers + parliament.
The news comes as the Cabinet Office confirmed a senior civil servant feared he was the victim of phone hacking as recently as last year.
In a letter released by the Government the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O Donnell, said no evidence of “wrongdoing” had been found.
However following concerns put to the house by Labour MP Nick Raynsford, a letter released by the civil servant in charge of the Department for Education Sir David Bell shows that the unamed senior official raised concerns about ‘phone tampering’ as recently as 2010. However, police did not identify any security concerns.
The BBC reports tonight that a former News of the World journalist has been fired over allegations of misconduct during his time at the paper.