Could phone hacking saga still bring down Cameron?

THE MOLE has learned that dissident Tory backbenchers are privately hoping that the continuing twists and turns in the News of the World phone hacking scandal, and in particular Andy Coulson's involvement, will be enough to bring down their leader, David Cameron, over his serial lack of judgment.

The scandal was given new legs yesterday by Tom Crone's appearance before the Commons culture committee yesterday, and it is now almost certain that James Murdoch will be recalled by MPs to explain himself.

Against this backdrop, rumours are circulating at Westminster that both Sir Paul Stephenson, the former Met Commissioner, and John Yates, his assistant, are writing books about the affair which brought about their joint downfalls. Neither memoir is likely to make life any easier for the prime minister.

Cameron has implied that Coulson lied to him about the extent of the hacking, and his involvement. But senior Tory MPs believe hiring Coulson was one of a series of examples - along with cuts in defence, his betrayal of the pledge to hold a referendum on Europe, and attacking Pakistan while in India - of how Cameron lacks the judgment to continue as prime minister.

While Euro-sceptic Tory MPs are planning to grab the headlines at the Conservative Party conference next month, behind the scenes Cameron's close relations with the Murdoch empire could prove far more damaging.

The unrest surfaced during Prime Minister's Questions today when two Tory MPs, Nadine Dorries and Mark Reckless, openly complained about Cameron ceding too much to the Lib Dem deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. Dorries told him bluntly to tell Clegg "who is the boss" while Reckless called for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU, which Cameron flatly rejected.

Meanwhile, Tom Crone's evidence to the culture committee yesterday has made the headlines mainly because of his assertion that James Murdoch knew about the famous 'For Neville' email that made it clear phone hacking was widespread at the News of the World.

But Crone also brought up another sensitive matter. He told the MPs he had seen a dossier drawn up on the orders of a News International executive on the private lives of two of the lawyers of the phone hacking victims.

Confirmation of the dossier has come from Mark Lewis, a lawyer for the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and dozens of other phone-hacking victims, who said yesterday that he had seen it and that its contents suggested he’d been followed by private detectives.

Some members of the committee are asking - privately so far – whether there could be any reason for gathering information on the private lives of these lawyers other than to intimidate the lawyers into either dropping the cases or backing off. That would not be journalism - it would be blackmail. ·