ANALYSIS: IN LATE 1997, in the months following his first election victory, Tony Blair enjoyed unprecedented popularity, seemingly defying political gravity. Then it was learned that Labour had accepted a £1 million donation from Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone.
It emerged soon afterwards that Labour had bowed to Ecclestone’s desire for an exemption for tobacco advertising. Though Blair survived and won two more elections, the Ecclestone affair laid the seeds for issues – funding, spin, links to the wealthy – that dogged him ever after in office.
David Cameron has had his Ecclestone moment. Yesterday, in Pretoria, South Africa, aides were preoccupied as he met South African president Jacob Zuma. They were following rapidly changing events back in London.
The British prime minister’s core difficulty, however, is one he can do nothing about: he appointed former News of the World editor Andy Coulson in 2007 as his opposition communications chief, and later brought him into Downing Street, despite advice. Nothing can change that now.
A commonly used word yesterday was “resign” – Labour leader Ed Miliband implied that he should follow Metropolitan police commissioner Paul Stephenson’s lead and quit; mayor of London Boris Johnson was asked repeatedly about it in City Hall. So, too, was home secretary Theresa May.
May had come to the Commons to express regret at the resignations of Stephenson and his deputy, John Yates, and to announce a new string of inquiries that will tie the Met into giving evidence for years to come.
British chancellor George Osborne – who first suggested bringing Coulson into the Conservative camp – sat beside her, looking tired and years older.
Downing Street is officially in a panic. Cameron, who had intended spending all week in Africa on a trade visit, first decided he would return tomorrow morning to prepare for a Commons statement later that day. Following the decision of Yates to quit, just minutes before he faced suspension, the revised timetable was revised further, so Cameron now returns late today.
Stephenson said the hiring of former News of the Worlddeputy editor Neil Wallis as a temporary PR officer at Scotland Yard was different from Coulson's situation because "unlike Coulson" he had not had to quit over phone-hacking.
Stephenson also said he did not tell Cameron about Wallis until last Thursday because he had not wanted to cause problems “by revealing or discussing a potential suspect who clearly had a close relationship with Mr Coulson”.
Stephenson’s motivations are interesting, since No 10 had not wanted him to go, even if it tried to have an each-way bet on Sunday afternoon with mutterings about the home secretary’s “concern” about his conduct.
Cameron’s difficulty, however, is that he does not know where to move. Resignations are needed to cope with the avalanche from the crisis; but each one in turn brings the sword of Damocles closer to him.
Tomorrow he will face a resurgent Labour in the Commons, where summer recess has been delayed by a day. This time there will not be the protection of new announcements, used to some effect last week.
However, the landscape could have changed dramatically by then following the appearance before a Commons inquiry today of Rupert Murdoch, his son James and former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks.
Brooks will say little, having spent 12 hours with police on Sunday. But James Murdoch’s future hangs in the balance, following clear signals that some BSkyB shareholders are nervous, while his father has never been one used to facing questioning.
But Cameron has two angry policemen to worry about too. Stephenson, angry and free to speak, will appear before the Commons home affairs committee today, while Yates’s fury at having to resign is in full view.
And then there is the death of former News of the Worldjournalist Sean Hoare – the man who told the New York Timeslast year that Coulson told him to hack into voicemails. His body was found at his Watford home yesterday morning. More than a few will worry about the papers, if any, that he left behind.
