James Murdoch Recalled To Face Culture Committee MPs Again

James Murdoch Recalled To Select Committee
|

James Murdoch will be recalled to the Culture Media and Sport (CMS) Select Committee, according to its chairman John Whittingdale.

The News Corp head's evidence to MPs had been questioned by News of the World's former legal manager and editor, Tom Crone and Colin Myler, during a session last week.

Huffpost UK understands that Les Hinton, the former executive chairman of News International, has also been recalled. He told Parliament two years ago that he believed only one reporter, Clive Goodman, had written stories based on hacked voicemails.

The committee has not issued a summons for the men, they have only invited them. The invitations are being sent out this afternoon. If they agree to appear, the hearings would probably take place within six weeks.

In evidence last week the former NGN legal manager Tom Crone told the CMS committee he informed James Murdoch about a transcript of hacked private information about Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor - in a 15-minute meeting, also attended by then NoW editor Colin Myler in 2008.

They claimed James Murdoch was told of an email which showed phone hacking was widespread at the newspaper. This directly contradicted James Murdoch's evidence to the commitee in July when he stood by News Internationals long-running claim that they believed phone hacking was confined to just one reporter on the News of the World.

In response to their evidence last week, James Murdoch issued a statement saying he stood by his original testimony.

CMS Commitee member Tom Watson told HuffPost UK this lunchtime: "We are looking at to see if the committee has been previouslty misled. We've already managed to obtain lots more detail about the inner workings of News International and I look forward to the new set of witnesses giving us even more.

"The devil is in the detail with this bit of the inquiry. We need to find out what Les Hinton and the lawyers say before we know what we'll ask James Murdoch."