PM forced to come clean - sort of - on BSkyB chat

David Cameron knows the phone hacking scandal will not go away during the summer recess of Parliament after admitting that he did speak to Rebekah Brooks and other Murdoch executives about the media group's bid for BSkyB.

Cameron had been hoping to get through yesterday's emergency debate on Murdoch and the News of the World hacking disclosures without further damage so that the frenzy might die down while MPs go off on their long summer break.

But he found himself cornered by concerted questioning from Labour MPs, finishing with the old left-wing blowhard, Dennis Skinner.

Cameron could not lie - the cover-up is always worse than the deed - so he was forced to come clean. Well, almost. What he actually said - many times - was: "I never had one inappropriate conversation..." It sounded like Bill Clinton denying oral sex with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman..."

And there is more to come out. News International have been forced to free their lawyers Harbottle and Lewis from client confidentiality to cooperate with the police. They may now release some of the emails in their possession that one judge said could show criminality to any sensible person in seconds.

Tom Watson, the Labour MP and friend of Gordon Brown who turned sleuth in the hacking affair, believes that further revelations will include the disclosure that laptops were hacked. Cameron himself said the Daily Mirror will find itself facing some awkward questions in the coming months.

At one point, as the PM launched a fight-back against his tormentor, Ed Miliband, bringing attention to Labour's close links with Murdoch in the past, he said: "Gotcha!" - the headline the Sun ran the day the Belgrano was torpedoed in the Falklands War.

In fact, it's Cameron's ratings that are sinking. An Ipsos MORI poll shows the recent furore has left Cameron's personal satisfaction ratings at their lowest point since he became prime minister, and lower than any of his ratings as leader of the opposition since September 2007.

The fun factory has closed for the summer, the chamber is silent, and MPs won't be back until September for a two-week session before they go away again for the party conference season. Politics has been put on hold. There is a breathing space.

But Cameron knows that as he relaxes with the kids, it will come back to haunt him. Ten separate inquiries have been set in train. We will hear about the possible prosecutions of Murdoch executives in October.

Then there's the conspiracy theory raised in the Commons by Labour MPs Nick Raynsford and Barry Sheerman that while Andy Coulson was working in Number Ten, someone was hacking public servants' phones.

It is claimed that a senior member of a Quango had his phone hacked, and that the spooks were called in and traced it to someone close to Downing Street. Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, is hotly denying all knowledge of such claims, but it shows that there is more to be squeezed out of the Murdoch scandal.

No wonder Tory MPs hearing Cameron explaining himself at the 1922 Committee before packing their buckets and spades privately admitted they were praying for some great distraction: Gaddafi toppled, a state funeral or two... even Greece being forced out of the euro would come as a relief right now. ·