Piers Morgan, the former tabloid editor, has said David Cameron should never be trusted after his “reprehensible” treatment of his former communications director Andy Coulson, who was jailed for phone hacking.
In an interview with the Guardian – in which he denied any involvement in phone hacking while editor of the Daily Mirror – Morgan also accused the former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman of “deliberately misconstruing” a 2002 conversation about voicemail interception.
However, Morgan reserved particular ire for the prime minister: “Cameron … was one of Andy Coulson’s closest friends and both were incredibly embedded with each other,” he said.
“And at no stage has Cameron shown support for Andy, either publicly or privately, and I find that reprehensible. I would never do that to a real friend and I don’t think real people would. And frankly to just do it for political expediency stinks.”
After watching Cameron’s Conservative party conference speech last week, Morgan said: “I listened to Cameron talk about trust. I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him.”
Coulson was found guilty earlier this year of conspiring to hack phones while he was editor of the News of the World and jailed for 18 months, two of which he spent at the category A Belmarsh prison.
Morgan, who lives in Los Angeles and was appointed editor at large for Mail Online in the US last week, visited him at Belmarsh. Morgan said the fact Coulson was not moved to an open prison more quickly was “pretty extraordinary”.
With Cameron’s personal approval ratings riding high after the Tory conference, Morgan’s criticism is unlikely to carry much weight, however.
Last week, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People publisher Trinity Mirror agreed to pay damages in 10 civil cases relating to allegations of phone hacking between 2000 and 2005, brought by public figures including former England manager Sven-Göran Erikkson. The company is facing nearly 50 civil compensation claims for alleged phone hacking.
Morgan, who edited the Daily Mirror for nine years until he was sacked in 2004 over fake pictures purporting to show British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, continued to deny he was personally involved in phone hacking. “I’ve never hacked a phone nor told anybody to hack a phone.”
In several interviews prior to 2010 Morgan described the widespread nature of phone hacking among national newspapers a decade ago. Reflecting on these comments, he said: “Talking about something is not the same as doing it or being party to it. There’s a big difference.
“To this day not a single journalist who worked for me at the Daily Mirror has been arrested or charged in connection with any offence.”
Four former Sunday Mirror journalists, including ex-editor Tina Weaver, were arrested over alleged phone hacking by officers from the Metropolitan police’s Operation Weeting investigation.
Morgan was interviewed under caution in December 2013 officers working on Operation Weeting. “There’s an ongoing investigation and I am not going to comment,” he said.
He is still furious at comments made by Paxman during his own evidence to the Leveson inquiry into phone hacking in which the TV presenter suggested that Morgan had explained how to hack into mobile phone voicemail.
“If I told you there was a spate of muggings in Hyde Park and to be careful does that mean I’m instructing you in the art of mugging or does it mean I’m giving you a warning about a practice I’ve been made aware of?” Morgan said.
“Fine, if he wants to spear me years later by deliberately misconstruing what I was saying to him. I made no secret of the fact that I warned people about this. I was warned myself.”
