Yates goes, PM dodges resignation questions

The phone-hacking scandal claimed another major police scalp today as John Yates, assistant commissioner at the Met, resigned following yesterday’s resignation of his boss, commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson.

The departure of London's two top police chiefs - Yates was head of the anti-terrorist branch - opens up a can of worms over alleged corruption in the relationship between high-ranking police officers and Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

Both home secretary Theresa May in the Commons and David Cameron in South Africa signalled that serious and wide-ranging investigations into alleged police corruption would be ordered immediately.

Yates resigned after being told by the Metropolitan Police Authority that he was being suspended over his handling of the Murdoch hacking allegations. According to the BBC, this came about after the MPA confronted Yates with new information about his friendship with Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World, who was arrested last week.

Labour leaders will be jubilant after claiming that Yates had shown double standards by aggressively pursuing 'cash for honours' allegations - including interviewing Tony Blair in Number Ten in December 2006 – and yet presiding over a whitewash at the News of the World over the hacking scandal.

Yates's sacking was expected after London Mayor Boris Johnson hinted strongly on BBC Radio's Today programme this morning that his head would be the next to roll. After Yates resigned, Johnson said it was right for both Stephenson and Yates to stand down.

"There is absolutely nothing that has been proven against the probity or the professionalism of either man," Johnson said. "But in both cases we have to recognise that the nexus of questions about the relationship between the Met and the News of the World was likely to be distracting to both officers in the run-up to the Olympic Games."

There was an immediate and angry backlash to Yates’s departure from some senior police officers who said morale in the force was now “rock bottom”.

The resignations of Stephenson and Yates have put David Cameron under fresh pressure over his own close relations with Murdoch executives, particularly his former aide, Andy Coulson, who is currently free on police bail pending criminal investigations into phone hacking.

As I wrote earlier today, even some Tories are wondering if Cameron himself could be brought down by the scandal.

He has cut short his trade mission to Africa from five to two days and will be back on Wednesday to make a statement to the Commons, having delayed the parliamentary summer break by a day.

Cameron denied that he had made an error of judgment by leaving the country amid the fast-moving events - which will see Rupert Murdoch, his son James and ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks make an eagerly awaited appearance before MPs tomorrow.

Questioned by an audience at Johannesburg Stock Exchange today, Cameron dodged questions over whether he had considered resigning.

Meanwhile, Labour leader Ed Miliband sought to ratchet up the pressure by claiming the Prime Minister was "hamstrung" by connections to Coulson and Brooks. He said there was a "sharp contrast" between Sir Paul's "honourable" decision to resign and Cameron's repeated refusal to admit he made an "error of judgment" by employing Coulson.

Miliband called for Cameron to "lead a debate" on the fallout from the phone hacking scandal on Wednesday, rather than simply give a statement. ·