Phone hacking: Harman adds to pressure on Piers Morgan

Deputy leader of the Labour party Harriet Harman has added to the pressure on Piers Morgan, saying that he has "got to answer" questions about allegations of phone hacking at the Daily Mirror while he was editor.

Harman told Sky News that it was "not enough for him to say, or for someone to say on his behalf, 'I always complied with the law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct', he's got to answer now we've got this allegation from Heather Mills".

The allegation Harman referred to was levelled by Mills this week against an unknown Mirror Group journalist, who she alleges contacted her and "started quoting verbatim the messages from my machine", which were left by her then-husband Paul McCartney.

Mills claims that she told the reporter she would contact the police if the story was taken further, after which it was dropped.

In 2006, Morgan wrote in the Daily Mail: "At one stage I was played a tape of a message Paul had left for Heather on her mobile phone". He said that the message was "heartbreaking" and that Mills had sounded "lonely, miserable and desperate".

Harman said that Morgan's admission "clearly gives rise to the assumption that he'd heard a tape-recorded message".

Morgan issued a statement yesterday through his new employer CNN, which broadcasts chat show Tonight with Piers Morgan, calling Mills' comments "unsubstantiated".

"Heather Mills has made unsubstantiated claims about a conversation she may or may not have had with a senior executive from a Trinity Mirror newspaper in 2001.
 
"The BBC has confirmed to me that this executive was not employed by the Daily Mirror. I have no knowledge of any conversation any executive from other newspapers at Trinity Mirror may or may not have had with Heather Mills.

"What I can say and have knowledge of is that Sir Paul McCartney asserted that Heather Mills illegally intercepted his telephones, and leaked confidential material to the media. This is well documented, and was stated in their divorce case."

Morgan goes on to call Mill's claims "extravagant" and reiterates: "I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone."

Trinity Mirror said in a statement: "Our position is clear. Our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct."

The publishing group recently launched a review into editorial procedures and standards across its local and national titles, which include the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the People.

Trinity Mirror titles featured prominently in a 2003 investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office, Operation Motorman, which uncovered widespread use of private investigators by national newspapers and magazines.

Files taken from the office of investigator Steve Whittamore showed around 4,000 requests from 31 news outlets, including 681 from the Daily Mirror, 143 from the Sunday Mirror and 802 from the Sunday People.

There were 952 requests from the Daily Mail, 266 from the Mail on Sunday and 228 from the News of the World.

Those requests do not necessarily relate to illegal behaviour, such as phone hacking or blagging.

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