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Cherie Blair in phone hack claim

22/02/2012 - 18:28


Cherie Blair has lodged a claim over hacking of her phone, her lawyers said tonight.

The wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair is understood to be taking action against News Group Newspapers.

A statement released by Graham Atkins, of Atkins Thomson, said: “I can confirm that we have issued a claim on behalf of Cherie Blair in relation to the unlawful interception of her voicemails.

“I will not be commenting any further at this time.”

Tony Blair's former communications director Alastair Campbell told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in November that he believed a story the Daily Mirror published about Cherie Blair's pregnancy in 1999 may have come from hacking.

He admitted he had “no evidence” that journalists intercepted either her voicemails or those of her lifestyle consultant Carole Caplin, but queried the source of a number of articles about Mrs Blair.

“During various periods of the time that we were in government, we were very, very concerned about how many stories about Cherie and Carole Caplin were getting out to different parts of the media,” he said.

“I had no idea how they were getting out. In relation to not just Carole, and not just Cherie, but all of us who were involved in the government at that time, all sorts of stuff got out.

“Some of it may have got out because people who were within the government were putting it out there. Perhaps. That does happen.

“But equally there were all sorts of stories where you would just sit there scratching your head thinking, ’how the hell did that get out?’.”

In January, Tina Weaver, now editor of the Sunday Mirror, told the inquiry that the story the Daily Mirror published about the pregnancy in 1999 came from public relations guru Max Clifford.

She told Lord Justice Leveson: “The information came in to the then editor, Piers Morgan, and I was his deputy and he asked me to write it.

“He purchased it from Max Clifford, I think that’s a matter of record, and he told Mr Morgan where he received the original information from, I believe.”

The news comes just days before the publication of the first Sun on Sunday by News International.

Speculation about a Sunday edition of the biggest selling UK daily newspaper had been mounting since the closure of the News of the World after the hacking scandal.

The announcement was finally made on Sunday amid concerns The Sun would suffer the same fate after the tabloid was rocked by the arrests of 10 current and former senior reporters and executives since November over alleged corrupt payments to public officials.

Mr Murdoch flew to the UK last Thursday and was said to be staying to oversee the launch of his empire’s newest newspaper.

He lifted suspensions of all arrested staff, pledging “unwavering support” for his journalists, and also vowed to root out wrongdoing at News International.

A News International spokeswoman today said they would not be making any comment.

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