Disgraced former News International boss Rebekah Brooks intervened to persuade David Cameron to make ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson his spin doctor, it was claimed last night.
She is understood to have urged Mr Cameron to scrap plans to give the job to a senior BBC journalist. Mr Cameron was told it should go to someone who was ‘acceptable’ to News International.
The disclosure increases pressure on Mr Cameron over his close links to Mrs Brooks and the Murdoch empire.
Rebekah Brooks (left) is understood to have urged David Cameron to make Andy Coulson (right) his spin doctor
It follows the revelation that Mr Coulson stayed at the Prime Minister’s country residence, Chequers, two months after he was forced to quit as Downing Street’s head of communications over the phone-hacking scandal.
Cameron had intended to appoint the BBC's Guto Harri as his media chief
Mr Cameron met News International executives 26 times in 15 months.
Mr Cameron had been on the brink of appointing the BBC’s Guto Harri as his media chief when he was Opposition leader. Mr Harri and his family spent a weekend with the Camerons in 2007 to discuss the job offer.
However, it went to Mr Coulson after Mrs Brooks got involved, according to sources in the Tory party and at News International.
She is said to have told Mr Cameron that the post should go to Mr Coulson to strengthen links between the Tories and News International. He had resigned a few months earlier as News of the World editor over the phone-hacking storm.
An individual intimately involved in Mr Coulson’s recruitment said: ‘Rebekah indicated the job should go to Andy. Cameron was told it should be someone acceptable to News International.
'The company was also desperate to find something for Andy after he took the rap when the phone hacking first became an issue. The approach was along the lines of, “If you find something for Andy we will return the favour”.’
Rebekah Brooks in line for £3.5m pay out as News International slaps gagging orders on chief executives (apart from that inquiry on Tuesday)
Mr Coulson, who was arrested this month over the phone-hacking furore, resigned from the News of the World in January 2007. Weeks later, the paper’s Royal correspondent Clive Goodman was jailed for phone-hacking.
Coulson got the job for Cameron after Brooks got involved
Mr Coulson’s appointment as Mr Cameron’s communications director in July 2007 came after he was close to agreeing to give the post to Welshman Mr Harri, who was then the BBC’s North America business correspondent.
When Mr Coulson moved into Downing Street after last year’s Election, Mr Cameron’s director of strategy Steve Hilton was given confidential information concerning the extent of Mr Coulson’s alleged involvement in phone-hacking. He passed it on to the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn.
Mr Cameron now says the information was not passed on to him.
George Osborne, who was then Shadow Chancellor, also urged Mr Cameron to pick Mr Coulson over Mr Harri. ‘George is fixated with following how Tony Blair did everything but the decisive factor was Rebekah,’ said a Tory aide.
In 2009, the News of the World and The Sun abandoned support for Gordon Brown and switched to Mr Cameron.
Mr Harri went on to be communications director for Mr Cameron’s Tory rival, London Mayor Boris Johnson.
A Tory source said: ‘Lots of people said Andy would do a good job but it is not true that anyone from News International lobbied Mr Cameron to get him the position.’
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