Miliband: PM must face Commons over Coulson

Ed Miliband: PM must face Commons over Coulson
12 April 2012

Ed Miliband today demanded that David Cameron be brought before the Commons to answer questions about his hiring of Andy Coulson.

Labour submitted a formal request for an urgent statement on why the Prime Minister ignored a series of warnings from senior figures that Mr Coulson was unsuitable to work in No10.

"Unless he can explain what happened with Mr Coulson and apologise for his terrible error in appointing him, his reputation and that of his Government will be permanently tarnished," said Mr Miliband.

He twisted the knife after it emerged that warnings were given by Nick Clegg, Paddy Ashdown and the Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger.

The Guardian told Downing Street aide Steve Hilton specifically that Mr Coulson had hired Jonathan Rees, an unsavoury private investigator who had been sentenced to seven years in jail for a criminal conspiracy. Mr Milton passed the warning to Mr Cameron's chief of staff Ed Llewellyn who, say Downing Street sources, sat on the information.

"You cannot get more specific information than this," said Mr Miliband. "The Prime Minister must now explain. Did Ed Llewellyn tell him about this evidence and did he ignore it? Either people have been misled about what Mr Cameron knew or Mr Llewellyn has completely failed in his duties."

A Downing Street source said Mr Cameron had answered the questions when he said that he took personal responsibility for the decision to hire Mr Coulson and that much of the information was "already in the public domain".

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