Liberal Democrats in Britain had been raising concerns about phone-hacking before the general election, Liberal Democrats leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said this morning.
Mr Clegg who said he was the first person in Government to demand a judge-led inquiry into the allegations claimed he had used talks on the creation of the coalition to raise the issue of Mr Cameron's decision to appoint former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as Downing Street director of communications.
Mr Clegg stressed that the decision to appoint Mr Coulson was the prime minister’s alone.
Asked whether he had challenged Mr Coulson’s appointment, Mr Clegg said: “Of course there were constant conversations — particularly in the early stages of the Government — about how the Government was going to be formed, who was going to be appointed, who was going to be employed and so on.
“I asked questions about some of the decisions about who was being brought into government, who had been active in opposition.”
He added: “It was (Mr Cameron’s) decision and he has been very frank and candid about the fact that he takes responsibility for it. In the same way that I take responsibility for appointments in my team, he takes responsibility for appointments to his team.”
Liberal Democrats have not been implicated in the recent furore over politicians’ relations with the press, but Mr Clegg has struggled to capitalise on this in the polls.
Today he sought to establish a distinctive position for his party, saying: “I don’t think anyone should be surprised that the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives come at this issue from completely different directions. “We were the only party in opposition to call for an inquiry into the phone-hacking allegations, even before the election.
“I was the first person in Government to say it had to be a judge-led inquiry.
I was the first person in Government to say that Rupert Murdoch needed to reconsider his bid [for ownership of BskyB]. “I was the first person in Government to say we needed to cover not just the police and press but politicians as well.
“On each and every one of these counts, I pushed that case and thankfully we have now got the right kind of inquiry, which I think will go a long, long way to cleaning up what was a very, very unhealthy state of affairs.”